Finding the Princess
by Isabel M-Ameban
Summary: What if Miwan would have been a real woman in Next Ep17? We know Zel had a crush on her. Here is the answer about what would have happened. A Miwan-Zel-Amelia story. Of course other characters also appear. FINISHED R&Rplease.
1. Chapter1 The Disguise

***Disclaimer**: _Slayers belongs to Mr. Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui, Tkyo TV soft, Fumination, etc, etc... I don't own anything of Slayers franchise. This is just a fanwork to be happy reading it._

***Author Notes:** This is a contest story. Basically **"What if Miwan would have been a real woman instead a man**?" from NEXT-Ep 17. This story follows the events of that "drag" episodie, but this time Miwan is a real woman, and we know Zelgadiss felt very attracted by her in that episodie. Basically this explains what would happen in such case. I talked with my friend Nadessiko (another fanfic author), about this, so we got a conclussion. This story is, indeed, the narration of that conclussion. So enjoy it!

Also, special thanks to Earthstar-chan, who beta readed this form me. Thank you so mucho.

* * *

**Chapter 1- The Disguise.**

**T**he "Lighting" spell over their heads and the table projected some illumination to the map extended over the wooden table. However, it also caused their heads project their shadow shapes over the same map that everybody, except Martina, watched with interest.

Fortunately the girls' room, with three beds and a nice balcony was big enough for all of them to gather together in there. They sat around a square wooden table, and watched something extended over it; only Martina remained a little apart of them, laid down over her bed, oblivious to the rest of the group's interest, which included Xelloss, for her own annoyance.

Lina poked her quill over a certain point on the map. A point that was traced around with a circle and showed a little place between mountains and several lakes inside.

"So… that's the problem. The kingdom is enclosed around this valley and the only way to enter is if we are all women…" Lina sighed. "That's a problem."

"It is a problem. We can't enter as regular travelers because only women can enter in Femille."Amelia spoke; Lina looked at her as she was saying something very obvious, but Amelia raised her hand, trying to add something else. "We cannot enter using the Seyruun royal crest, either." Amelia added, "Certainly Femille is like Seyruun… A holy kingdom focused on White arts, but its philosophy is completely different since it doesn't allow priests inside the kingdom. And Seyruun has no rights to send any division to there if it's formed by men. It would cause a diplomatic problem between the two countries. I really can't use my rank to enter there; even Seyruun's official delegations are always formed by women, never men."

Lina sighed heavily, almost groaning, in disappointment.

"What is the point in traveling with two princesses here, anyway?" the red sorceress complained waving her hands towards Amelia and Martina.

Martina' singsong voice echoed from some chair behind the rest.

"I already told you! Do not count me, Lina… My kingdom isn't powerful anymore since a certain flat chested sorceress destroyed it. I cannot enter Femille like this!"

Lina looked at Martina with an angry expression, but was suddenly cut off by Gourry. Even if the blond swordsman tended to make stupid remarks, perhaps it was better like that because they serve to change Lina's mind.

"…And wouldn't be better if only Amelia visit this place?" he asked. "After all, she's the only priestess in our group."

After asking that, Lina suddenly forgot anything related with Martina's comments.

"No way, Gourry!" Lina spate back, "Femille has something very powerful that helps to get excellent priestess… I cannot pass without finding out what's that is."

"Neither can I." Added Zelgadiss, who was sit next to Amelia and in front of Lina. "Perhaps it's the Claire Bible, or something else, but I won't let this chance pass by. I also want to see what it is."

Xelloss, sat near Martina, but also keeping a closer eye on Lina, nodded with a light move of his chin, making clear he also agreed.

Amelia kept talking.

"That's precisely part of the problem. Femille's priestesses are really good, even better than an average Seyruun's priest. Of course, Seyruun's clergy is more important and influential, but in terms of accuracy, they tend to be better than our own priests. And we don't know how they do that."

"Really?" Martina asked from her chair, again. "But wasn't Femille's clergy made by formed Seyruun's priestess?"

Such question would make Amelia a little angry, but instead she tried to clarify that point, which seemed to be some short of popular belief.

"No, not at all. The Femille kingdom was founded by women from many countries that decided to build a kingdom formed entirely by women. Some of them are from other countries, like Seyruun, but most of them were indeed born in Femille."

"That's causes an interesting question." Gourry said almost thoughtfully… "If men aren't allowed to enter in that country, how could those women have any children? There must be any men inside the country."

Amelia and Lina, both, blinked; none of them had thought about that point.

"I guess when a Femille woman wants to have a baby, she just makes a trip to some city from outside the frontier, and then she can get pregnant after finding a man willing to do it with her. Later, she just comes back to Femille and there, a new baby is born inside the kingdom's frontiers". Zelgadiss explained with his usual cold and descriptive manners.

"That's very harsh, Mr. Zelgadiss." Amelia pointed.

"I'm just being descriptive." The chimera man answered, "I also heard that the men that are captured inside Femille's frontiers, before being executed, are used for breeding." The corner of his mouth just flicked, "A funny way to die, but there are many idiots that would think a kingdom made entirely of women is weak."

"Well, if you enter Femille, perhaps that's your possible future." Lina pointed in mocking tone.

"I don't want to run that risk, Lina." Zelgadiss answered, his voice was even colder.

"Now, now!" Lina answered waving the quill in her hand. "Well, if all us have to enter Femille, and only half of us are women… then…" Lina's face turned mischievous, "We only have a way to do it."

They knew Lina for long enough to know that when Lina made *that* face, she had some twisted idea in her mind.

* * *

"**A**aaaah! No!" Gourry shouted; it was kind of strange to see him so angry, "I refuse, Lina. I do not want to be disguised as a woman, again! I already had enough last time!"

"Last time?" Zelgadiss asked, surprised. "What happened last time?"

"We had to disguise ourselves when Eris' men were chasing us." Amelia explained to him in a low voice, "It was before I met you, Mr. Zelgadiss."

The chimera nodded and added "It had to be a very bad experience if Gourry can remember it."

"Well, it was because he had a little trouble with a mercenary back then."

As they talked, Lina and Gourry were still having an argument about the matter. Usually, Gourry made a "stupid" remark or question, Lina pulled out her slipper, hit him with that, and later she explained to him what was going on with one of her long speeches. But this time it was different; Gourry was, indeed, angry with Lina with the sole idea of being in "drag" again. Seeing Gourry defending his male dignity so passionately made Zelgadiss jealous of his own skills, and it also made the chimera man wonder what had happened to Gourry with that mercenary, because he was really infuriated by his memories of that "last time".

"Gourry…" Lina started, breathing heavily as she tried to gather all her patience. "We must enter Femille. And the only safe way, even for me, is getting a disguise. If we are all going to run the risk on entering in disguises, you just can't remain outside, waiting for us!"

Gourry's mouth stopped to shout complains and he step back; his face showed a rare sign of disbelief. The blond mercenary always had had a very high overconfidence, but Lina's words had changed it, and for once, he truly felt overwhelmed by the current situation. Besides that, Lina had pointed out, in very subtle terms, something that he understood perfectly "_You're my bodyguard, so you must accompany me to Femille, no matter what._" In fact, Lina was almost blackmailing him because she knew Gourry had promised her to be next to her till the end of the world.

Finally, Gourry just gave it up.

"Ok… I'll wear a disguise and I'll go with you." He buffed, "But please, I'm really asking you: no more buns on my hair!" the blond swordsman said.

Lina's triumph smile was obvious, "Ok! Then you'll come with me in disguise."

"Ok, I'll do…. But what about Zelgadiss?" Gourry inquired, pointing with his thumb to the chimera man. Zelgadiss looked at him angrily, but he answered,

"That's true. I barely can pass as a human… how can I pass as a woman?"

"Well, you aren't too tall, Zel" Lina pointed with a smile.

"I'm serious, Lina" Zelgadiss spat back.

In spite of her words, Lina knew Zelgadiss was right; the chimera man had to cover himself almost completely if he wanted to pass unnoticed. Most of the human chimeras could not do that because their looks were very bizarre, but at least Zelgadiss could pass as human if he was properly covered. But even so, how could he pass as a normal woman being a chimera man?

"…Perhaps as a female elf?" Gourry suggested his face totally serious, so nobody could say if he was making fun on Zel, or just suggesting something seriously. The blond swordsman was prone to make pranks on Lina, but not on the others.

"What do you mean with that?" Zelgadiss barked, annoyed by Gourry's bizarre idea.

"Oh… I just was thinking on how you could camouflage your long ears and your eyes." Gourry answered, not paying attention to Zelgadiss' angriness.

"Mr. Gourry… how could Mr. Zelgadiss being disguise as a female elf?" Amelia asked, reflecting Zelgadiss' thoughts about the matter.

"Well. It's obvious he can't pass as a regular man, but I think with the proper elements, he can pass as for a female elf." The blond swordsman said, "Elves tend to be pale skinned, with sharp eyes and long ears… Most people know this, but they actually only know those details. So if they saw a woman with such features, they will think she's an elf, even if she isn't'."

After Gourry' speech, everybody was obviously shocked. None of them had even though the so-called "jellyfish brain" guy was capable of such reasoning. Lina, of course, was the first to talk.

"Wow, Gourry!" she exclaimed, "How… why do you know all those things?"

Gourry scratched his forehead, "Well… My family has always been closer to elves, so I know a little about them. Besides, I've noticed many people are really unable to recognize a real elf because they never have seen one. So I think Zelgadiss can pass as one of them using the right disguise."

Lina and everybody, even Xelloss, seemed to be shocked by Gourry's idea.

"Mr. Gourry… did you know elves?" Amelia asked in wonder.

"Hmmm, yes." He answered, sounding as it was something natural.

"Oh, my…!" Lina mused, but then, her usual mischievous expression got back to her face, "Ok, Zel! What do you think?" She meant the disguise, of course.

"It could work. At least, if I have to pass as an elf, my features wouldn't be so strange in Femille." Zelgadiss had to admit that Gourry was right.

Lina had a triumph smile.

"Ok, then! Gourry will wear the pink dress he had last time and Zel will be a female elf." She exclaimed, "And what about you, Xelloss?" she asked turning towards the smiling priest.

"Oh. I don't mind disguising as a woman… surely it will be a lot of fun." Xelloss answered, making Gourry and Zelgadiss, both, to cringe. "I think I know what kind of clothes I'd like to wear. And perhaps a fan, to hide myself behind."

"Ooooh! My lord Xelloss… you're neat!" Martina exclaimed in joy. She was very happy to see her so-called *current- boyfriend* was prone to play a feminine role.

Lina and everybody else had big sweat drops on their faces. However, Zelgadiss long ears caught how Gourry muted something like "_I didn't know its kind liked to be in drag_".

After recovering of such an impression, a new problem popped out.

"I… well… We cannot pass being like this, either" Amelia announced. "Even if we're women, we're sorceresses, and that's highly suspicious on a kingdom like this."

"What do you mean?" Martina asked, "I thought only men could be in trouble on Femille."

Even if Martina also was a princess, she seemed unable to learn about the subtleties of politicians. Was that because her lack of common sense? Amelia couldn't help but sigh heavily. Lina also has a wondering expression on her warm eyes.

"Lina is a sorceress, Martina is a princess, and I am a priestess… of Seyruun" Amelia began, "Even if Femille's royal family doesn't know me, I'm a Seyruun's priestess, and Lina is a sorceress." The dark haired girl made a pause, "Better if we camouflage ourselves, too. We'll avoid trouble and diplomatic discussions."

"Hmmm… I see" Lina reflected, "Perhaps you're right."

"Mostly if you think on your fame" Gourry commented, "People call you 'dra-mata' and stuff like that everywhere."

Lina's eyebrow flicked.

"Yeah, that's right. If we want to find out what happens on Femille, we can't be suspicious."

"Sooo… what do you suggest?" Martina asked.

"You should disguise yourselves, too." Zelgadiss said, "With something that can hide your true identities."

"I refuse to be dressed as a Zefirian country girl!" Lina shouted; she seemed to have issues about her homeland's typical folk dresses.

"Perhaps we should wear something with trousers". Amelia suggested.

"Trousers?" Lina exclaimed, "Only priestess, sorceress and mercenary women can wear those. And we're supposed to pass unnoticed."

Amelia nodded, "Yeah, but Femille's society is quite open to receive women inside its frontiers, and better if the women are of many kinds. So wearing trousers like mercenaries or wandering women do, would help a lot."

Lina listened carefully Amelia's words and nodded, but Martina seemed surprised.

"Wow! How did you know that?"

"Seyruun always wanted to strike up nice relationships with Femille. I know her queen has a young daughter and the royalties wear crest-cameos on their necks." Amelia explained making a gesture on the base of her throat. "Fortunately they don't know me, so it will help to pass unnoticed, even if I also have to be in disguised. It also may be a wonderful chance to learn about the kingdom itself, and it will help to Seyruun's politics."

"Ms. Amelia… you're truly a politician." Xelloss encored from his place. The rest couldn't point if Xelloss was making fun on her or just being serious.

"Ok, then!" Lina agreed, "Now we have to solve what we need for our disguises."

"You should check the local stories and get some clothes." Xelloss commented, this time with his usual mocking manners.

* * *

**O**n the next morning, the group went to buy some clothes and accessories for making up the men as women. They found that local stores had many accessories that, ironically, served for their purpose of disguising men as women, so they bought things like stuffed corsets and bras –which caused some remarkable comments from Gourry-, wide girdles, or frilly petticoats for simulating women's wide hips. All those things were just very useful for transforming a man into a woman, and they were very easy to get in the local stores of that town. It could be because several reasons, such like the local fashion was very found in that kind of things, or it could be because many men wanted to be disguised as women… as stupid it sounded. At least the town was well provided of feminine complements since Femille kingdom was at other side of the mountains valley and commercial caravans had to stop at that town.

"My beloved Xelloss said he will seek for her own dress to disguise himself." Martina complained with a purr, "It seems he doesn't want me to help him."

Amelia laughed nervously, but it was Lina who spoke

"Yeah, well, let's see what he does… At least I still kept the pink dress that Gourry wore last time we had to disguise him as a girl. I just need the padding stuff and some make up… Fortunately he barely has a beard and a moustache."

Somehow, Lina seemed to be proud of herself for playing to customize dolls with Gourry as doll, but suddenly she turned towards Amelia, who was carrying all the dress packages in her arms. "And what about Zel? Did you finally convince that stubborn chimera to get disguised as a female elf? Last night he seemed to agree, but later he was still complaining about that."

Amelia barely saw the path where the three girls were walking around the market place where the stores sold their items. A flick of black hair pocked from behind the big boxes and talked.

"Yeah, I convinced him. Since female elves wear different clothes than humans, he could use hoses, and over them, a thin skirt; therefore the change won't be so hard for him. I have to buy a lot of makeup for his skin, though."

Lina's grin was quite wide. She was laughing at the mental image of Gourry with a big red ribbon on the top of his head, and Zelgadiss covered in makeup… However, the idea of seeing Xelloss turned into a woman, and the fact that the priest didn't want any help, wasn't as funny as the others. Xelloss reserved behavior wasn't as funny as the mocking character wanted to be.

Finally the group entered in a cosmetic store and, as usual, Amelia had to carry all the packages; Lina didn't want to do the hard work and well, she didn't trust on Martina.

* * *

**A**fter getting all the clothes they needed, the group abandoned the inn and went to a closer forest. At first they had thought on changing their clothes in their inn's rooms, but later they decided to do it in the path towards Femille, because doing it at the inn would be heavily suspicious. The innkeeper would have found really odd that the rooms he had arranged to a group of three men and three women, was suddenly turned into a group of six women. It was like having a big cartel on their foreheads saying "_We're going to enter Femille being disguised as women_". Better to avoid that kind of suspiciousness, so they just left quietly.

After leaving the town, the group headed towards the caravans path that crossed Femille's frontier, and at a certain point, they left the main path and hidden themselves in a near forest of beeches and ashes trees placed around a little grassland, quite away from the main path. There weren't any cattle, farm or anything else around, thus it meant they were hidden from the country people's eyes.

Since it was summer, the group didn't have troubles in changing their clothes in the middle of a forest. Lina, Amelia and Martina changed their usual clothes for mercenary wandering clothes, wearing trousers and shirts with low boots in order to make an easier trip. Lina also hid her weapons in order to be unthreatening to Femille's people, who wouldn't agree with a woman that wears blades. Gourry, however, hid his sword's hilt in the padding of his fake breast… perhaps thinking nobody would dare to look in there; but Zelgadiss just hided his sword in the enchanted cloak of his own disguise. He never would abandon his weapons.

The result was Lina wore black clothes; she always liked the dark ones, similar to Xelloss', which caused some remarkable comments from the mocking priest, but she spat back she needed those wide clothes to hide all her things with her spells. Martina and Amelia, though, wore short clothes with unusual colors… Seeing Amelia dressed with something that remembered a Lincoln green outfit wasn't anything usual.

After that, the group split up into three different couples. Every one of the girls helped the boys to disguise as women. Gourry would wear the same pink dress from that previous time; Zelgadiss would be disguised as a female elf and Xelloss… When the wandering priest appeared, everybody become heavily surprised; the girls had changed their own clothes already, he came back in totally drag. Martina seemed to be the only really pleased with Xelloss' disguise, but the rest where just revolted. Zelgadiss, who had enough reasons to dislike Xelloss already, and Gourry, who had already enough issues to be disguised like that, felt their guts being revolted when the priest appeared in front of everybody eyes with that womanly shape: his hips looked very wide, his usually broad shoulders appeared now even thinner than usual, and overall, his long legs were perfectly shaped and hairless; and a pretty curved body covered with a qipao-like dress, some kind of clothes from the past. Was that womanly shape hidden behind those black velvety priest clothes? How could he be disguised like that? It was hard to believe.

But Zelgadiss was able to think the worse about Xelloss, which included his twisted moral and lack of male pride.

In spite of that, the chimera had agreed to disguise himself as a female elf. He barely had an idea about what Amelia had bought to turn him into a different being, but once they both were quite away from the rest, he proceeded to get dress. First, he untied his cloak and pocketing all his possessions inside the magical pockets on the wide piece of felt fabric; after doing that, he caught the fine piece of white cretonne that formed the triangular shape of his disguise cloak. With a sigh, he also hid his sword inside the piece of fabric, which suddenly had become very heavy. His daggers, instead, were hidden inside his healed white boots, one per boot; fortunately Amelia knew what kind of clothes he needed to safely keep his properties.

As he pocked all his things and got undressed, Amelia had just turned away, looking towards the beech trees; basically she didn't want to make him feel uneasy as he undressed himself in front of the princess, and to tell the truth, Amelia felt some kind of pervert if she did that because she found herself liking to see him doing that. Any other regular woman would have find to watch him quite gross, but Amelia had a different opinion about that.

"_Perhaps it's the same reason that Lina likes to dress and undress Gourry_" she thought as she realized a light blush covered her cheeks. But soon she shook her head, denying that idea. It couldn't be she could have romantic feelings, or even just plain physical attraction for a man as selfish as Zelgadiss was.

On the other hand, Zelgadiss felt obviously annoyed. Since the very beginning, he did not want to be in drag, and he kept wondering if there was another way to enter in Femille and finding the kingdom's secret power only by himself. He had assaulted many "secret" and "holy" places when he was under Rezo's orders, seeking for the Philosopher Stone… so what was so different this time? Why he just couldn't do the same things that he had done in the past? He could just sneak in the kingdom; capture some priestess and force them to tell what their secret was and find out. End of the story and problem solved.

But no, he just couldn't do something like that again. Not only because he wasn't willed to do the same deeds that he did in the past, neither because Femille was an "only women" kingdom where his head was in danger for the sole reason to be male. He just couldn't do that because he wasn't alone; neither Lina, Gourry and even less Amelia would allow him to do such a thing, and if he did, he would put all of them in danger, besides the fact the Femille kingdom would declare him an enemy. And he just didn't want any of those results.

The only right way to do this was getting disguised, as the rest of the group. The chimera man had to swallow his male pride to get it.

Zelgadiss felt the summer sun over his now bare stone skin, something he wasn't used to feeling; then he caught one of the pieces for making him into a woman and looked to Amelia, who had remained back to him all the time. It was the first time he literally undressed in front of her, and that made him to feel uneasy. A regular woman would have screamed at his presence, but Amelia just remained quiet, trying to respect his intimacy. He sighed heavily at this; it was the first time that a woman was like that in his presence.

"Amelia" Zelgadiss called out, "What now? ...I don't know what pieces I have to put on, now."

The black haired princess made a light jump, surprised by his sudden question; but soon she turned back and then her cheeks blushed even more notoriously, but she fought the feeling of what she saw. Amelia remembered how revolting she had thought that chimeras were, just like a being made by random pieces of any other creature and put them all together; she also had found Zelgadiss was, indeed, very scary because of his looks… and his behavior. But now, she barely could think on him as having a hideous look, he was far more perfect than an average chimera, even if his behavior wasn't the best, either. His body seemed to be made of blue marble, like a statue back from the royal palaces in Seyruun, and his silver-lavender hair shined under the summer sun. Certainly the princess couldn't call him "hideous" anymore, but she knew it was only her.

Perhaps she was a stranger woman for thinking like that. But again, she shook those thoughts away and caught the frilly petticoat and handled it to him; who fortunately still held the cloak, hiding his lower body with that.

"You should put this on first" Amelia explained, "For shaping a woman's hips… Later, you put the black hoses over it."

Zelgadiss caught the weird structure of baleens and fabric that will shape his new hips and handled it, studying how to put it.

"Ok. I'll let you know if I need help for putting those things on." The chimera just answered.

And without further words, he dropped the white cloak and proceeded to hold the frilly petticoat around his own manly hips. Amelia couldn't help but watch how he put those things around his body. She had to guide him, after all.

Once he had put the black hoses over the fake hips, he caught the brown girdle and the stuffed corset in brown color.

"Now, what?" he asked, obviously annoyed, but in a hurry to finish as soon as possible.

"You should put the girdle around your waist; it will help to carve a thin waist. Later, put the corset and cover everything with the white blouse. If it is well placed, you'll get a woman-like shape."

Zelgadiss' eyebrow flicked, annoyed by the thought.

"I can't put this on!" he announced, perhaps too loudly. "The girdle is used to compress the waist and making it thinner, right?" Amelia nodded without understanding, but Zelgadiss kept talking, "My belly is covered in a tough stone skin; I'm able to hold a sword strike on there… so how could this thing to compress my waist?"

Amelia blinked, realizing Zelgadiss was right. Stuffed cloth pieces may work on his body, but not compressing pieces.

"Then, perhaps you should put it over the blouse. It looks a little odd, but it would help to emphasize a woman shape." The princess suggested.

To her surprise, Zelgadiss nodded. He seemed to have made up his mind to look like a woman. Or perhaps the idea of using such a piece of cloth made him even angrier.

"Ok… then, help me to put this thing on." He asked waving the stuffed corset.

Amelia nodded and a new blush covered her checks. She didn't know if Zelgadiss also felt uneasy because he allowed her to touch him like that, but he seemed he was angry enough to overcome any other feeling. Whatever it was, the chimera put the corset around his upper body, and Amelia helped to placed it correctly, noticing all the rough stones imbibed over his marble skin, but also his lacks of scars. At this point, none of them knew yet how big was going to be the scar that will cross Zelgadiss back in just some weeks.

Amelia, however, tried to avoid a direct contact with his stone skin, but even so, Zelgadiss twitched lightly when he felt her soft fingers over him. It was barely a touch, but he knew that feeling was like that because his stone skin avoided him to feel something else. But even so, the feeling was pleasing and he closed his eyes, wishing Amelia could touch him like that without concessions. At this point, an unknown feeling of blush burned on his checks, just like that day some weeks ago, when he thought Amelia was going to make the "mouth-to-mouth" to him; it was so similar and so disturbing that he sighed heavily.

"Are you ok?" Amelia asked, behind him, trying to adjust the corset's braces.

"It's ok… But I just don't like this." He complained.

And ironically he was honest, because the view of the fake breasts over his chest killed off the entire mood.

"We already have discussed this, Mr. Zelgadiss." Amelia answered, trying to calm him down, without knowing the original cause of his sight.

Zelgadiss shook his head in disappointment. Even if he had seek for Amelia's touch, the view of himself with such wide hips and a fake breasts was really annoying. Certainly he liked women with a body shape like this, but having one himself was a different matter.

Amelia, on the other hand, noticed something different: Zelgadiss didn't have any body hair, neither on the forearms or his arm prints; only his head had it, and it didn't included his eyebrows. But even if she wondered why, she couldn't find the moment to ask him why.

Finally, Zelgadiss didn't need Amelia's help anymore to get dressed; a white blouse, black hoses, a rectangular white skirt and the similar cape on his back, which was very heavy due to the fact that Zelgadiss carried all his properties in there. By then, Amelia helped him to place the brown girdle around his belly and waist; Zelgadiss was right, the firm piece of cloth couldn't compress his waist, but the piece of clothe itself had a visual effect that emphasized his thin shape. Fortunately Zelgadiss always has been quite slender, and it helped to keep the visual effect of having a thin waist.

Amelia clapped her hands, without thinking it could annoy him.

"Oh, my Cepheid lord!" she exclaimed in joy. "You look very nice with that! I'm glad I got the right clothes to turn you into a woman."

"Yeah; that's wonderful." Zelgadiss answered with a grunt.

Amelia, instead, looked at him with one of her smiles; Zelgadiss had become used to them, but even so, he didn't like what she was meaning to say.

"Come on, Mr. Zelgadiss… everybody is going to be in disguise. Just think Mr. Gourry doesn't like this, neither Lina. We are all making some sacrifice to enter Femille."

"Yeah, I know." Zelgadiss answered with a new buff, "I can hear Gourry's complaints from here." Amelia was a little surprised, but with those long ears, Zelgadiss certainly could hear it. The chimera man sighed once again, and then, he looked at the smiling face of Amelia; as usual, it cheered him. "Ok… Let's finish this."

"I'll help you to camouflage your features, Mr. Zelgadiss" Amelia said, encouraged by his words. "I've got makeup made of rice flour to cover your stone skin. And also some shadow for your eyelids and lips."

"Rice flour makeup?" Zelgadiss asked; he was too surprised to be annoyed.

Amelia nodded. "It's the most covering. Even if your face and hands look too white, it will simulate the stones on your face, and Mr. Gourry said elves tend to have pale skin."

"I see." Zelgadiss answered absently; "Who would guess Gourry would know about elves?" he smiled.

"Mr. Gourry always surprises us…" Amelia smiled him back, "Now, Mr. Zelgadiss sit down on that trunk, please."

The chimera man obeyed and he took a seat over a fallen trunk as Amelia grabbed the recipient with the white makeup and a cotton pad to spread the mixture over his face. He barely felt the touch of that piece, but the change on his skin's surface though him the dark haired princess was covering his face with that stuff. Amelia had a concentrated expression on her face, totally focused on her task, and he marveled at her casual gestures; a kind of behavior that was usual in somebody that trusted a lot on the other person.

That meant Amelia did trust Zelgadiss. And even a year after their unusual meeting, it still marveled him.

"Mr. Zelgadiss… close your eyes, please." Amelia asked, "I need to cover all of your face."

"Okay." He obeyed.

Again, Amelia felt the blush burning on her checks at the sight of Zelgadiss' peaceful face with his eyes closed, and she secretly thanked that he couldn't see her now. She had that chimera man in front of her, with his eyes closed as she spread the white makeup over his face and his neck. Amelia realized never had she been so close to a man before, touching him like that, except perhaps, for her deceased cousin.

Why did she think that? It wasn't that she liked him! Zelgadiss was just her best male friend, somebody she trusted her with life, not his lover. Not at all. He was too mean for to be that.

At this point, she had already finished.

"Okay, I'm done. You can open your eyes now." She said.

When Zelgadiss opened his eyes, the peaceful expression he had, just faced away. That made Amelia to be surer about her thoughts.

"How is it? Is this enough?" he asked, his usual serious expression on his face.

"Only some things remain… I have to put the lipstick on your lips and combing your hair."

Zelgadiss nodded, "Ok. But be careful. My hair is like metal wires and it can get stuck in your flesh."

"Sure, Mr. Zelgadiss. I'll be careful." Amelia answered, grabbing a brush of wild boar's bristles for his hair. Then she remembered about his body hair. "Can I ask you something?" she said.

"Asking? About what?"

"Your hair… It seems you only have hair on your head." Amelia knew Zelgadiss felt uneasy about things of his body, but she was intrigued.

"Ah, that… Well…" the chimera seemed to reflect a little before answering. "My lack of body hair is because when I was transformed into a chimera, I was very young. Besides …I age slower than a normal human so I just don't have as much hair as a man of the same age as me."

"Oh!" Amelia exclaimed, truly surprised by his answer. "I sorry if I asked something inappropriate

"Never mind, Amelia."

Then, she made a gesture with her fingertips, obeying him to raise his head and looking at her as she combed his fringe. It was a natural gesture that made a chill on Zelgadiss' back; since he was very young, nobody had done something like this in many years. A new chill run on his back when he felt the brush combing his messy hairs.

"I thought you couldn't comb my hair properly. It's very messy."

"I guess so…" Amelia smiled, she seemed to enjoy combing his hair, which made him even more wondered by her. "But I'll put a diadem that I bought."

Zelgadiss just sighed and Amelia did so. Even if he didn't like to be in drag, he felt pleased for Amelia's behavior towards him. But her touch finished when she put the diadem on his head and said,

"Oh! You look perfect! You're a very pretty female elf now!"

That spoiled all the fun.

* * *

**W**hen Amelia presented him in front the rest of the group, Lina was chasing Gourry with some makeup in her hands, and Martina was combing Xelloss' hair; everybody was just busy with their own disguises. But suddenly, every one of them stopped to look at him in drag and it was just too much for him… Zelgadiss barely could remain still on his healed feet; the fake breasts almost hid his foot and the rice makeup was annoying his face.

The last thing he needed was to be congratulated because of his feminine looks.

"That's perfect, Mr. Zelgadiss!" Amelia whispered to him, "Everybody is amazed with the result! You look beautiful!"

Perhaps Amelia was very proud of the result, but Zelgadiss didn't feel like that, and even felt a hint of angriness towards Amelia because, in the end, she was also doing the same that Lina did with Gourry: playing to dress up dolls with him.

"No way! That's enough!" he shouted, and Amelia stepped back, surprised by his sudden rage.

"I am going to leave this. The idea of being dressed as a woman is just stupid and insulting!" He turned down over his heels and began to walk away.

Amelia understood that perhaps she had pressed Zelgadiss too much; perhaps he trusted enough in her to allow the princess to touch him like she just had done, but it didn't mean he actually wanted it. Mentally, Amelia kicked herself.

Yet she couldn't allow him to run away like that.

"But Mr. Zelgadiss… we have to enter Femille all together." She said.

"I don't care! I'll do this by myself!"

Lina knew what that meant if Zelgadiss refused to follow their plan with them, so she also rushed to stop him; she knew arguing with Zelgadiss wasn't a good idea at all, so she tried to make change his mind with soft words, pushing him back as Amelia tried to do the same thing by grabbing him by his waist. Even if Lina hadn't liked that idea, when she put her hands over his chest, her eyebrow flicked softly as she noticed Zelgadiss' fake breasts were bigger than hers. No wonder why Zelgadiss was so angry about everything: Gourry watered eyes were watching him; Xelloss looked like a total pervert in drag, and Martina enjoying the show since everything was meant to put Lina in danger was fun for her.

Definitively he will run away from here, will destroy those stupid clothes, and will enter inside Femille's frontiers by himself, doing things under his own rules.

---Although Amelia's hands grabbing his waist were very nice feeling.

But then his sharp ears caught something that made him to stop suddenly. It was a hard breath and very strong footsteps that very getting closer. The sudden flick of several bushes also revealed something was moving throw them. And it couldn't be an animal.

Zelgadiss had stopped just there; Lina caught there was something wrong, and Amelia also did.

"What's that?" the redhead sorceress mused. She couldn't feel any danger. The chimera tensed, ready for anything.

Then, suddenly, a much unexpected thing happened. A long haired girl just popped in the middle of the bushes and rushed towards them. Everything happened too fast, the three magicians basically couldn't catch any remark of the unexpected newcomer, but the girl rushed totally reckless towards them, her face reflecting a great fear, and she just let her drop over Zelgadiss' chest, almost crying.

Amelia and Lina watched the scene completely surprised, but the shocked one was Zelgadiss: an unknown girl had just dropped over him in the middle of a forest, and now she was crying on his chest. Finally, she said something coherent.

"Help me…. Please! Help me!" were her pleads.

"Eh?" Lina exclaimed.

But Zelgadiss seemed to have learned better what was going on. That girl was scared by something, so he just raised his head and saw the object of her fear: a were-lizard man was chasing her with a spiked truncheon.

The chimera knew the were-lizards very well. They were one of the minor beings that lived in the world, usually hidden from humans, who were their most direct competitors, but they also were aggressive towards them. When he served Rezo, Zelgadiss had used many of those to accomplish the tasks he was ordered to do, and he had learned that, even if many humans feared them, those weren't as dangerous that they seemed to be. So the chimera just shrugged and extended the right hand, muttering a spell.

"Flare arrow!" he shouted almost lazily.

The spell was quick and precise. A fire arrow just emerged from his palm and was shouted and it reached the target easily. More were-lizards that came behind the one with the truncheon saw what happened to their companions and just rushed away, fearing the same fate that the fallen one.

"Well done, Mr. Zelgadiss!" Amelia exclaimed next to him.

"Wow!" Lina exclaimed, "I didn't imagine that a tribe of were-lizards could live around here."

However, it had been too much for the unknown girl, who just dropped to her knees in a shock state. Zelgadiss could barely catch her by her back, holding her. It was then Lina and Amelia, both, centered their attention on her.

"Who can be she, anyway?" Lina asked, noticing the rich summer clothes she wore.

"I don't know…" Zelgadiss answered, still holding her and taking note of her soft features. "But she's covered with bruises, too. Perhaps she also is hurt and that made her to faint."

"Perhaps, but… Eh!?" Amelia exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Amelia?" Lina asked.

"That cameo on her neck… look at it! This girl belongs to Femlie's royalty!" Amelia was shocked.

"What!? Really!?" Lina exclaimed back and Amelia nodded.

"Then that can turn the events totally." Zelgadiss mumble, taking care of holding the girl, because he knew what could happen.

Then more human voices sounded from the forest. All were feminine.

"_Princess Miwan!? Your highness! Where are you!?_" they called.

"They're looking for her." Amelia announced, "We haven't any other option, Mr. Zelgadiss. We have to play the roles we agreed yesterday."

The chimera in disguise nodded. "Ok… I'll make my voice softer and I'll pretend to be a female elf." His voice was serious; he knew there wasn't any other option.

At this point, Lina started to make signals with her hand. "Heeeereee!" she shouted, "We're here with the princess." Then, she turned back and blinked an eye towards Amelia and Zelgadiss. "We've been lucky!"


	2. Chapter2 Miwan

***Disclaimer**: _Slayers belongs to Mr. Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui, Tkyo TV soft, Fumination, etc, etc... I don't own anything of Slayers franchise. This is just a fanwork to be happy reading it._

***Author Notes:** Basically **"What if Miwan would have been a real woman instead a man**?" from NEXT-Ep 17. This story follows the events of that "drag" episode, but this time Miwan is a real woman, and we know Zelgadiss felt very attracted by her in that episode. Basically this explains what would happen in such case. I talked with my friend Nadessiko (another fanfic author), about this, so we got a conclusion. This story is, indeed, the narration of that conclusion. This chapter has several scenes that appear in the anime, but with a twist in order to make clear what happens in the un-told scenes, and what are the characters' thoughts about those events. The idea is developing those in order to put clear what happens in every moment.

Don't forget**_ Miwan is a girl_** in this story.

Special thanks to Earthstar-chan, who beta readed this form me. Thank you so mucho.

**_Comments and criticism are welcome.

* * *

_**

**Chapter 2- Miwan**

**A**melia had been right. Femille's princess was a young girl, around the same age than Lina and Amelia themselves, although her life seemed to be quite different. Physically, she was beautiful, or rather, cute; her face was rounded, with also rounded and big golden eyes, a feature that wasn't very usual; her hair also was dark, long and straight, with her fringe cut in a line, similar to Xelloss', which was something that made her to have some resemblances with Sylphiel, but also was usual among priestess. Finally, she was some inches taller than Amelia, and her body shape was quite rounded, too.

Since the very beginning, Zelgadiss had felt he liked her features. They fit his own personal taste about women. But nothing of that mattered as he was conducted, along the rest of the group, to the Throne Hall.

Miwan, of course, had been oblivious about that fact. The group had found that, apparently, Miwan has rushed away from some priestess escorts as she was going to a certain place in the valley. In a certain moment, she just had sneaked out and rushed away from the other priestess, who obviously went after her. In her flight, she had crossed a Werelizards' camp, and that had made them angry, so they started to chase her. At least, the escort priestess saw that and came to her rescue, but Miwan only could run randomly among the trees, till fortunately she saw a group of women in the forest' meadow, so obviously she headed towards them, begging for their help.

The Femille's princess barely realized about what was going on. Her run has been exhausting, and she barely could keep a normal breathing, besides being obviously stressed by the werelizards chasing her. So she just asked for help to that tall woman in dark and white clothes that was at there. But what that woman did was totally unexpected: Miwan could hear how her savior muted some words and suddenly, a long flame merged from her hand and converted the werelizard into a crispy meat. The shock had been too much and she just passed out.

When Miwan awoke again, she was back in Femille's royal palace, laying on a bed with a canopy that wasn't her usual one in her private rooms; around her, she could see several magic objects as well the elder priestess that had been attending her, taking care of her bruises and mental condition, making her to drink some relaxing herbs tea. It wasn't something surprising because she knew in her kingdom almost of the half of the population were priestess, and all them were good at their job, thus being healed and relaxed like that wasn't anything new.

However, she couldn't help but ask what had happened.

"…You were saved by a group of traveling women that were heading towards Femille. They seem to be able to use magic in some degree, so they could stop the werelizards easily."

"Oh…I see." Miwan answered, sounding tired and calmed. "And where are they now?"

"They're having an audience with your mother, the queen. Her highness is very grateful with them because they saved you."

Miwan turned away from the elder priestess and mused, "I see."

"In fact, her highness wants to talk with you when you feel better, princess Miwan."

"That's what I expected…" she muttered, again.

* * *

**F**emilie's royal palace was placed in the middle of the capital city, which was surrounded by a wall, as what usually happened in important cities. However, the building itself wasn't very big, and in a certain way, it also was a very big temple, which made sense since it was a kingdom formed by priestess. It was constructed with granite rock, possibly from the surrounding mountains, although the most nobility parts were covered with white marble, as usual in temples. It had a very big and high dome in the center of the structure, and just under it was placed the main temple hall. The surroundings were the palace's rooms, as well the temples. It caused the insides to have dozens of cloisters and little gardens, where priestess and palace's maidens rushed into their different tasks, as the group could see in their path towards the throne's hall. Femille's priestesses were easy to recognize, thanks to their long dark robes with a white and short mozzeta and pallium, in spite they wore the characteristic jewel on the neck that priests used to wear. Soldiers and guards, however, wore very different clothes and were armed with long gisarmes and partisan lances, and perhaps some light swords as weapons… still, they didn't wear trousers, and the hoses were hidden under their robes. Perhaps Amelia had been wrong about her info she provided.

In spite those characteristics, on their way, they all noticed the little resemblances with Seyruun's royal court, due the fact both kingdoms had similar philosophies, although Seyruun was far more powerful than Femille.

The group knew that they had been very lucky in their casual meeting and rescuing of Princess Miwan; being received inside the palace was a very good chance to make things easier and entering in the kingdom without problem… along that the three male members wouldn't be discovered. Amelia and Martina also had to keep their real identities in secret, so they couldn't talk as the princesses they were. As a result, only Lina would talk to Femilie's queen as the group's chief. She was the less suspicious, ironically.

Amelia knew that Lina had learned better about nobility and court manners after living for a while on Seyruun's court, yet she feared Lina's sudden bad temper could spoil everything. Besides, Gourry's tiring face and Zelgadiss' nasty expression could be inappropriate for a royal meeting, but she also had learned that the chimera-man (now in disguise) knew the high manners of nobility because he never was a commoner. At least it meant he could keep the composure.

But if Amelia spoke about Xelloss, the only thing she knew for sure was that Xelloss was a secret himself.

Keeping a smile, she looked at Zelgadiss' yes, catching his serious expression, and said…

"We'll get something good of this."

"I hope so." Was his monotone answer.

Finally, they came inside the Throne's hall.

* * *

**T**hey had seen some throne halls previously, they knew what was expected of such places, but Femille's throne hall was different. For starters, it was far gaudier, without the same rich stone elements than Seyruun's royal court, or the crests that decorated Xoana's royal castle; it couldn't be helped because Femille was a small kingdom. Besides that, it only had a throne, for the queen… because Femille hadn't a king, only a queen. Miwan's unknown father didn't have the rights to stay there, either physically or symbolically; Seyruun's lacked of consort princess since years ago Amelia's mother was assassinated. And Xoana also lacked of queen… But it didn't mean the throne hall hadn't a throne for them.

The Femlie's queen wasn't anything to do with her daughter. She was quite tall, with blue almond-shape eyes, curly long blond hair and a cute spot under the right eye. She wore the same cameo on her neck, but also a tiara, and a long tight blue dress, very different from Amelia's official and pompous dresses. However, she didn't seem to be a priestess.

The meeting was formal, as it was expected. They all kept a formal and submissive posture, with their hands clamped in front of them, as they were maidens waiting for the queen's royal commands. All this after doing a formal reverence, which was perfectly executed by Amelia, Martina, Zelgadiss and, surprisingly, Xelloss. Lina and Gourry were clumsier at there, but the queen didn't seem to care for that.

After that, the queen proceeded to explain in bare terms the whereabouts of her daughter running around the forests in the limits of the kingdom. Of course, she didn't enter in details, but it was enough to learn that Miwan was about to be converted into a priestess, and for some reason, she just run out. Such a confession caused Xelloss to make a comment about it.

"A royal princess converted into a priestess? Those things only can happen in this holy kingdom."

Of course, it was false, and Xelloss knew well, but he just tried to play cool with the queen, perhaps in order to gain her favor.

"What is so surprising?" she asked with a smile, "This is Femille kingdom."

Rather than agreed, she just seemed to be avoiding any chance to be asked for something. Even more, she kept talking about her own rants…

"I am really happy, though." She said, keeping the group attention, "For finding out my beloved daughter was saved by a group of wandering women." Her face turned serious, "But if a man have been discovered among you, his destiny and all yours would have been…" Now, only her eyes were darker, but also all of her face, turning even almost deadly. "Their fate would have been their death." And she made a gesture as if she was cutting the throat.

Every of them realized how meaningful her words were. Perhaps the queen was suspicious, or perhaps it wasn't the first time that a group of men tried to surpass Femille's frontiers. But the result was clear: Gourry and Zelgadiss realized how dangerous their situation was; they had to pass unnoticed as much as possible. However, Xelloss seemed to be oblivious about that.

* * *

"**W**hat a bitch!" Lina mussed with a heavy sight, walking tired, "Things were fine, we got carte blanche and can move around this place without problem… but that slay queen didn't give us any reward at all. I couldn't even ask for it!"

"Miss Lina, you cannot expect the governor of a country to give their secrets to every person that makes a favor to them. Even if we rescued Princess Miwan, her mother wasn't going to give us the secret of Femille's holy power only because we could have asked her." Amelia reasoned behind her.

"Hmmmm… I guess you're right. We have been lucky after all."

"Ok, Lina… Let's go out to find the Claire Bible or whatever is it." Gourry added, next to Amelia, "I'm tired of wearing this."

The dark haired princess, however, seemed more worried about other matters.

"Mr. Gourry… can't you remember what her highness the queen said? Try to play a more feminine role; otherwise you'll be in danger!"

"Ok, ok!"

"Oh! But this is too funny. I love playing this role!" Xelloss announced with soft voice behind his fan. Perhaps it was true, but both, Zelgadiss and Gourry cringed at his words. Martina, however, wasn't like that.

"Oh, my sir Xelloss! You're so neat!" was her crazy announcement.

Zelgadiss, however, was very tired of all those nonsensical rants. Since the very beginning, the idea of being in drag had bothered him without limits; the statement of Femille's queen about killing them if they would have been men and not women, had scared him a little at first, but even so, he couldn't keep thinking that woman was just a bitch that nothing knew about real matters. He had been "Rezo's berserker", and if that woman had ordered to execute him, perhaps it would have happened… but not without the bitch knowing who he was before it happened. Femille's queen would lament hurting him if such thing had happened.

But oh well, it was in the worst case, and he always could do things in another way.

It was then he noticed something by the corner of his chimerical eyes.

It was in the garden inside the cloister they were passing around in that precise moment. Under a big elm tree, there was a girl –nothing unusual since it was the people around-, dressed with a satin white blouse and a dark skirt, long to her ankles, as well a long dark mane. Zelgadiss stopped his walk and watched her with his sharp eyes. There wasn't any doubt: she was Miwan, the princess he had saved some hours before.

How could she be alone like that in that place? Or rather, was she already recovered? She seemed to have suffered a heavy shock by all the events she had experience that morning; but now, she seemed totally recovered and quiet at that solitary place.

Anyway, he had saved her, so perhaps she would recognize him. Perhaps he could try to find out something from her, because obviously her mother didn't say anything. Perhaps he should try. And besides, she was nice to look at.

Zelgadiss ignored his companions, who kept walking along the cloister, towards the exit gate and ignoring him, and then he looked around, moving his ears, trying to catch any danger or unwelcome presence. Perfect. There was nobody around, no priestesses or guards. So the chimera climbed the stone rail around the cloister and jumped to the ground, it was heavily covered of grass and his chimerical reflex allowed him to jump a first story without problem.

The fall was clean and noiseless. It also was neat because Miwan didn't hear him, so he stepped towards her.

Certainly Miwan didn't notice him till Zelgadiss got closer to her. When she did, she was muttering something to a greenfinch bird that had stopped on her hand; the little feathered being should be used to human presence because it moved around her without fear, perhaps the Femille princess herself feeds it, so the bird stayed on Miwan's hand till it noticed Zelgadiss' presence, and just flew away. Miwan didn't remain oblivious to Zelgadiss' presence anymore.

"Oh! It's you!" she exclaimed. Obviously she had recognized him as the woman that had saved her.

"My apologizes." Zelgadiss answered, softening his voice and in a rare polite tone. "I …I didn't mean to disturb you."

For his surprise, Miwan smiled, almost coquettish, and said. "Don't worry. It's fine… you're my savior, after all."

"It was my… duty." Zelgadiss answered, trying to sound polite. "That werelizard was a real threat."

"I guess so. I was very reckless crossing my path with those creatures." Miwan said, her voice a little sad. "You may sit down next to me, please." Added with a gesture of her hand, patting the stone surface of the bench where she was.

Zelgadiss eyes flicked quickly between Miwan's soft face and the bench, and then he nodded. "Thank you for letting me to take the seat next to you, your highness."

And he did so.

"Oh, you're very polite…"Miwan smiled, "But please, don't address to me with such formalities. This is a small kingdom and well, you are not my subject."

"You're very kind." Zelgadiss also knew how to play his role.

Miwan let the newcomer to sit down next to her. In some courts, it would have been a very brave behavior, but the Femille's princess seemed to seek some company. Zelgadiss watched her with attention, but trying not being very obvious.

"May I ask…?" Miwan started to talk, "What's your name?"

The sudden question caught Zelgadiss with his guard down.

"My name is Zel--- eeerh, Lulu… At least my friends call me Lulu."

Miwan looked at him, surprised. His voice had sounded quite low, but suddenly it had become chirpy.

"Lulu? Seriously?" she asked.

Zelgadiss nodded, "That's how my friends call me. And you can call me that, your highness."

"Okay… then, I'll call you Lulu."

On the previous day, Zelgadiss had learned that Lina, Amelia and Gourry had disguised once on the past year, and they also had changed their names. "Lulu" was the fake name that Amelia had used, and when Miwan asked for his, that was the first option that popped in his mind. It was stupid, yeah, but at least it seemed safer than "Lala".

Meanwhile, Miwan looked at him and took note of his features. His messy mane of silver lavender hair, the thick and white makeup on his stone face and his long ears.

"You have some rare features… Are you from some faraway place?" The princess asked in wonder.

Zelgadiss nodded, remembering the role he was supposed to play if somebody asked. "I'm foreign, yes. I am a female elf that was raised by humans." He lied, "Perhaps that's the reason you find my features… a little unusual." Another lie. "Now, I'm traveling with my friends, but all they are human, not like me."

Miwan listened him carefully and took mental note of that information.

"Oh! That's very unusual." The Princess exclaimed.

"What? Traveling with friends?" Zelgadiss asked, fearing to have talked too much. He didn't know about Femille's local customs, and perhaps it was truly estranger on that land.

"No, not that… Here, women also travel outside our kingdom sometimes, and always in a group" Miwan rushed to answer, "What I mean to say is…. I am jealous of you."

Zelgadiss looked at her, truly interested on her words. Miwan seemed to have realized of that.

"You're my savior and what you deserve at least is some kind of explication… something else of what my mother had told you, for sure."

"What do you mean …Miwan?"

"My mother would have explained to you and your friends that I'm going to be converted into a priestess." Miwan began to say and Zelgadiss nodded, "I really do not want that. My personal thoughts of beliefs about my life and my future don't matter at all. I have to become into a priestess… And that is…" Miwan's voice sounded really frustrated, "It is a lie… I just cannot live that lie."

Zelgadiss found himself truly pitting that girls' fate. It wasn't the same, but in certain sense it was similar to what happened to him. To Zelgadiss' eyes, his life also was a lie; he was being forced to live something he never wanted, never wished for. He would have loved other fate, different to be a wrecked chimera, cursed by his dement great-grandfather… Now, he also was living a lie, pretty much alike the one that Miwan claimed.

On the other hand, he also was living a very unusual situation. Certainly being in drag wasn't in his agenda, but now, thanks to that, he was chatting with a royal princess that was opening her feelings to him, only because he had been his casual savior. No girl had done it before, even Lina and Amelia had disliked him in their first meeting (and Lina had reasons for that); never in all his years a chimera, a girl had felt easy around him. Secretly, he thanked that Lina and Amelia were friends of him, since if he ever had a female friend in his past, Rezo would had killed them off, or just obeyed him to do that. But now, a very cute girl, a princess from a country where men were forbidden, was actually talking with him about her feelings… like he was a normal woman.

Zelgadiss wished to be able to show his real identity to Miwan; for him, royalties didn't mean anything, in fact, two of his current travel companions also were princesses… but having such a nice and cute girl talking to him so easily, was very nice. Without being able to control it, he felt a light blush burning on his cheeks, something that only Amelia had managed to do sometimes. But this was different; he wasn't used to be around women like Miwan, and being Amelia a girl, it was normal he also felt overwhelmed by her presence sometimes.

In spite of himself, Zelgadiss had to admit he actually liked Miwan.

---But such thing was impossible.

Still, he had something to say about Miwan's problem. As if he was talking about himself, he said,

"No. It isn't like that. There is always a way to change the future."

Those were the words he always believed. His reasons to live.

But Miwan was very surprised; then the chimera realized he had used his usual tone to talk, not the one for his current role of female elf.

"Eeeer…. I mean there is always a way to change the future, your highness." Zelgadiss blushes, "At least I think so."

"Oh, Miss Lulu…" Miwan exclaimed.

"_Damn… she's very cute!"_Zelgadiss exclaimed in his mind. He couldn't help but thinking that every time Miwan smiled at him, so natural and grateful.

But the nice scene finished so fast. Suddenly Zelgadiss felt something was strangling him; something strong enough to cut his breath. Instinctively, Zelgadiss brought his hands towards his throat and felt a pair of thing arms around his neck. There were a short number of people that were able to compress his throat like that, and Zelgadiss knew immediately those arms belonged to Lina. Amelia never dared to do such thing… at least he thought so.

"Oh, my!... I just came here to tell you we were going to leave the palace and visit the city." Lina said with an obvious mocking tone. "I just wanted to tell you that."

Miwan jumped on her site, shocked by the sudden appearance; that redhead girl was very rude, and certainly she didn't seem to care for being in front of royalty.

Meanwhile, Zelgadiss fought the nasty crushing on his throat, till finally he become tired of it. He only could leave being as decent as possible, so he rose on his knees, carrying Lina over his shoulders.

"I didn't mean to disturb you both…" Lina kept saying.

"Excuse me… I have to go now." Zelgadiss answered with his voice compressed.

Miwan was too shocked by the sudden scene and she only could nod in agreement. Zelgadiss bowed his head, still carrying Lina hanging on his neck, and left quietly.

Lina, of course, was enjoying the show. As far she could remember, Zelgadiss never had showed such obvious interest for a girl, or just talking so naturally with anyone. He usually avoided any kind of unnecessary socialization, so finding him like that, talking with the Femille's princess, was something shocking.

"You, slay dog…" Lina mocked at his ear, "In the end, you also are a man, aren't you? You like cuties like her."

"It is not that, Lina." Zelgadiss answered in sharp voice. And it was truth, he didn't mean to flirt with her, the theme they were talking about was quite serious, but in Lina's eyes, things were different. Zelgadiss couldn't help but blush under the thick makeup.

Lina kept giggling in a mocking tone all the way.

Miwan watched them leave, still shocked by the sudden appearance of the rude redhead girl, but soon her attention flicked to something else. Lulu had said much conviction that there is always a way to change the future, and she truly meant that, or at least she thought so. Miwan knew in just some minutes, her mother would call for her and she will have to deal with another of her tedious speeches about the need of becoming a priestess, and probably, she will pass again for the same process that in the early morning. Yet, perhaps, she could…

The domesticated greenfinch flayed over her head.

"To change the future…" she mused.

Yes, she could try. Lulu was right.

* * *

**W**hen the group was ready to leave the royal palace, Amelia was the first in noticing Zelgadiss wasn't with them, so she caught the rest of people's interests. None of them had noticed when he left or disappeared, and Amelia feared Zelgadiss could have been discovered and now he was the queen's prisoner or something. Amelia was quite clever, but the fear made her to feel irrational, so Lina had to reason with her if it was truth, the rest of them also would be under arrest, and in order to clarify what happened, she come back the same path they had done since they left the throne hall. That's when Lina found the unusual scenery of Zelgadiss talking softly with a girl, in this case, Femile's princess.

Now, Zelgadiss came back, walking as dignified as he could, carrying Lina hanging from his neck and with a light blush on his cheeks.

"What happened, Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia asked, noticing his blush "Where were you?"

"Oh, he was…." Lina started, still hanging in the same place.

"I was _gathering_ information." Zelgadiss answered in the same sharp tone as usual.

"So now that's what it's called?" Lina asked, teasing him.

"I couldn't find anything" the chimera kept saying, "And now, Lina, get off me."

"Okay!" And Lina did so, still giggling nonstop.

Amelia looked at them both with curiosity. She knew both of her friends well enough, and she knew Lina was teasing Zelgadiss, so perhaps he didn't feel ashamed of what he was doing. So, in the end, Amelia let it go; the Seyruun's princess didn't want to tease Zelgadiss anymore.

* * *

**F**emillie's capital city was placed in the center of the valley that included the holy kingdom of Femille. The city was surrounded by a granitic wall in almost circular shape, and it was covered with whitewash, as well the houses and buildings insides, which made the city basically white and clean, except for the buildings roof's made of dark slate, and it was very inclined due the mountain's clime. The result was very similar to a typical village mountain.

However, it wasn't that what surprised the group, but the fact that most of the half of the women that lived in that city were priestesses. No storekeepers, no traders or even guards, but plain and simple priestesses everywhere. Seyruun's court was almost a nuisance next to Femille.

As a result, the group decided to split in three different couples in order to gather information; one girl and one boy, which would make things easier for the men in drag that were camouflaged in the group. As usual, Gourry would go with Lina because he was her protector; Xelloss would go with Martina, or rather, Martina would go with Xelloss because the mocking priest seemed to accept her as his girlfriend or whatever the relationship they shared was; and finally, Zelgadiss would go with Amelia.

"We'll meet back at this inn-tavern here in three hours, when it's lunch time. We don't know how long we'll stay in Femille, so perhaps we also have to arrange any room, so it will better if we meet here." Lina announced, or rather, ordered. "Now, let's go in three different directions and let's see what we can find."

"I'd bet we'll met in a counter…" Zelgadiss mused.

"That's the usual in Lina, Zel." Gourry answered.

"Yeah, I know."

So that's how the group started to gather information about Femille' secret power.

The plan was basic. Of course, Femille's priestesses wouldn't say the secret of their power to a group of foreign travelers, but if they made up a good story as an excuse, then the locals could answer the question. In that sense, Zelgadiss thought Amelia was the best option because she knew about what she was talking about because she was a priestess and knew the best questions about the matter; perhaps Xelloss also did, but for some reason, he didn't seem to be able to handle White Magic, in spite he claimed to be a Cephied's priest.

"We'll ask in this local…" Amelia suggested pointing certain building made of stone. "It seems to be some _women only_ place, so perhaps people get relaxed here and they can talk more freely. Perhaps we learn something from casual chats."

"Amelia… here, everything is _Women only_." Zelgadiss answered, sounding tired.

The princess giggled, lightly embarrassed, "You know what I mean to say."

"And how are we supposed to gather information from casual chats? It would be such a coincidence."

"Well, I was thinking perhaps your sharp ears could catch any interesting conversation… Some info from here, some other info there… You know." Amelia reasoned and Zelgadiss scowled at her. "It's something I've learned in the palace. If you want to learn what's going on around you, you have to listen people."

It was a very simple term, but it made sense. Back the days he searched for the Philosopher Stone, Zolf spent hours seeking for clues thanks to his crystal balls and later, Zelgadiss himself and Rezo tied together those clues. They just had to enter in a place where people talked openly about such things.

So Zelgadiss nodded and accepted Amelia's suggestion. She was a clever girl, after all.

As Amelia discovered the curtain that covered the gate, he caught out of the corner of his eye and saw Martina run by the street, pulling Xelloss' arm; the curly haired princess was so upset that she didn't seem to notice them. Martina passed next to him, but Zelgadiss decided to ignore them: every time he caught a glimpse of the priests dressed with the qipao, his guts felt revolted, and certainly the Claire Bible wasn't something that could put Martina in that state of worry, so there wasn't anything interesting going on. He just let them go…

Quietly, he followed Amelia inside the local, expecting to find out something…

And just afterwards, he rushed out the local building.

It was a local public baths where the priestesses were to taking baths and therapies related with those. The chimera man was too ashamed to be there.

"What are you doing, Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia asked behind him, her head popping out from the gate.

"Better if I wait out here, Amelia" he answered. "You don't want me to be in a place where women can pass half naked in front of my eyes, do you?"

Amelia had to agreed, but Zelgadiss' honesty still amazed her. Any man could have took advantage of the situation and just enjoy the show of all those women in front of him, but Zelgadiss was just too scared for that.

"People are half naked in this local bath… I just cannot be there because I would be discovered!" Such possibility scared him and it certainly was a problem for all of them.

"Oh, you're right." Amelia answered, "Then, I'll enter alone."

"What? And why not we just look for it in another place?" the chimera asked in sharp tone.

"Because I'm still thinking this is a good place to gather information. Here, there are many priestesses and I also am one, so I can talk with them freely. I cannot do that in a store." She paused, then smiled, "Besides, I'd like to take a bath."

"A bath?! But I cannot be in there, or bathing with you!"

"Then better to split; I'll be in here and you can look for it in some other place."

"But…"

Zelgadiss didn't like the idea that much because he wanted to remain next to Amelia, it was safer like that, but on the other hand, he could do things in his own style, not caring for the rest.

"Ok. We'll meet in the counter that Lina said."

Amelia smiled him at back.

It was always like that. Amelia, somehow, was able to handle Zelgadiss' harsh behavior and she always answered with a smile. Sometimes the chimera man wondered how she was able to do that.

But well, he was alone now as Amelia enjoyed some bath in the same way that Lina should be eating already.

* * *

**N**ear lunch hour, people started to disappear off the streets. They certainly were coming back to their homes in order to have lunch, but even so, the streets remained animated. Zelgadiss had become quite indifferent about his disguise since he started to walk alone for Femille's capital city; since there weren't any men around, just women, he just passed unnoticed; when a man is in drag in the middle of other many men, then the drag one is obvious; but when the man in drag is in the middle of many women, he pass unnoticed easier. It's a big truth that the best way to hide something is putting it in front of everybody's eyes.

In fact, thanks to that and his sharp ears, the chimera caught a casual comment from a guard. Apparently, the woman in question (who had a quite masculine voice in Zelgadiss' opinion) was gossiping about Miwan's escape in the morning; she was saying that Miwan and her retinue were heading the Purification Spring when the "capricious" girl just decided to run away from there. As a result, they had to seek for her and the queen was angry again.

Zelgadiss was relieved because the guard didn't mention it was him who saved Miwan from the werelizard (probably because it was a dark spot in the royal guard, being unable to keep safe their princess), but he felt infuriated by the guard's words. He knew why Miwan run away from them, and he understood her reasons very well… so how could be that guard being so flat about the princess' feelings?

But soon, he shook his head, rejecting those thoughts: How could he be worried about Miwan's whereabouts? A member of royalty had less life problems than anybody else, there were people that suffered far more than Miwan… so why should he be worried about her? Besides, he just had found something interesting: "The Purification Spring".

At this point, some light reflected on his eyes, blinding him. It was the light reflected in a little mirror from a granny' stand. Again, he remembered the conversation with Miwan about her life and how he had assured her that the future could be changed; all his current efforts, including being in drag, were because of that. Empathy hit him again.

"You can change your future… your highness." The Chimera man mussed.

Then, an unexpected figure rushed behind him. His chimera eyes caught it on the mirror, but it just couldn't be.

"Miwan!?" Zelgadiss exclaimed.

Yes, it was her. But how could it be? Was the kingdom so careless that their princess could run around the city without problem? Couldn't all those women to see it was their princess who run among them? Even Amelia had troubles to pass that unnoticed back Seyruun.

But overall, what was she doing? Zelgadiss knew what Miwan had done in the early morning and why, so it was obvious the princess wanted to do something reckless. Without thinking twice, the chimera man started to run after her.

* * *

**A**s Zelgadiss tried to gather information of Femille's secret power source, Amelia also did in the bathhouse. She, of course, had used the chance to take a bath; it was a rarity that the princess hardly could allow herself in her travels, besides a good chance to get mixed with commoners. Even if they didn't find anything really worthy in Femille, certainly she was learning a lot of things about this small kingdom.

However, she only could hear was the "latest gossip". Everybody was talking about the success of Miwan, the heir princess, who was destined to become a priestess, but for some reason, she just avoided it. That morning, she was supposed to go to some holy place called "The Purification Spring" which obviously was outside the city, in the mountain's forest that surrounded the kingdom. As far as Amelia was concerned, she didn't understand why Femille's heir was trying to avoid becoming a priestess; for her, it was something natural, so the Seyruun's princess didn't understand Femille's princess in that sense. Still, her unruly behavior had served to learn something about how the local priestesses got their power.

After taking a bath and learning all this, Amelia just left the bath house and headed towards the counter where Lina surely was already eating as much as the redhead could. Her idea was telling the others what she had found, but before that, she had to find Zelgadiss, who surely was still around, in some place in the city. This was almost a town, so finding him would be easy.

Well, that was the theory. The fact was she couldn't find him.

Amelia walked along the market streets, the local streets and many others, looking for him. It was a quieter city, so theoretically she shouldn't have any trouble. But no, there wasn't any clue of him, even if Amelia expected to see his familiar lavender-silver hair at some point.

The Seyruun's princess was already making up her mind to go back to the counter without him. Suddenly, her path was cut off by a running woman. She jumped, startled by the sudden encounter, but suddenly she realized it had been Zelgadiss himself.

The chimera had passed in front of her nose, without noticing her.

"…But, where is he going so urgently?"

Amelia was surprised; Zelgadiss had ignored her completely, and now he was running because… The black haired girl noticed Zelgadiss wasn't running at maximum speed, he was able to run faster than that; it was because he was following somebody. And that somebody was Miwan.

Amelia's mouth just dropped.

* * *

**M**iwan was oblivious about Lulu and her friends entering in her kingdom, but she was pretty sure that Lulu had been honest with her. That female elf had given her the clues about how to overcome her fate. Miwan barely knew that strange woman, but the fact was that she had been the one that saved her using a spell, and the fact was she traveled around the world with her friends, had showed her there were other ways to live. The appearance of Lulu in Miwan's life bought some fresh air to her, and now, the golden eye girl was jealous of the female elf's life.

She had to try something.

Miwan knew her mother was about to enclose her in her rooms or something, and in some days, the whole process to become priestess will start again. It meant her mother will keep a closer surveillance over her in the travel to the Purification Spring, but since the capital city and the palace were quite small and everybody knew her, Miwan cold move around with certain freedom.

The Femille's princess had a plan that could change everything, and forever and ever; but she had to act fast.

Therefore, Miwan sneaked out the palace and headed towards the city's gate when it was the lunch hour; most of the people in the city would be busy during that time, when the streets were almost empty. She had to be fast, so she just ran across the streets. Later, she headed towards the Purification Spring and would accomplish her plan.

But what Miwan didn't expect was that Lulu herself had caught her in her run and now was following her.

* * *

**A**t first, Amelia had been surprised, but later she become confused and finally angry.

What had happened? She had agreed with Zelgadiss in meeting after she finished the bath and talking about the information they both could gather, and later, having their lunch with Lina and the rest. But no, he just had avoided her, even when she almost crashed into him, and he just had ignored her, or rather, he had ignored their mission, only because he had found it more interesting to chase the local princess.

It infuriated her. They were seeking for the secret of how to overcome high rank mazoku… she was seeking the way to help him! And this was how he paid her.

With those thoughts in her head, Amelia headed towards the inn-tavern where surely Lina was already waiting for them, and there she would explain what she had found about the Purification Spring. If somebody asked about the impolite chimera, she will make clear she didn't have any idea. Amelia was clear about that: she wasn't his guardian or something.

The black-haired princess entered the tavern and she found Lina (and Gourry, of course) were there, eating with those noisy manners; surprisingly, Martina and her so-called boyfriend Xelloss (or whatever he was) also were there already, split by gender: Gourry along Xelloss and Martina along Lina. There were a couple of empty chairs, so Amelia grabbed one and fell noisily on the table head, still angry.

"Amelia?" Gourry exclaimed, "Where did you come from?"

The Seyruun's princess didn't salute them, something stranger in her usual polite manners; besides that, her face showed a rare twitch of anger, which was a heavy contrast with her always cheerful face. Of course Amelia also got angry, but when such things happened, it used to come along with "Justice Speeches", but this time it was obviously different.

How could Xelloss always be the one in push the right buttons when somebody was angry?

"Weren't you with Zelgadiss?" asked the priest behind his fad.

Before Amelia could answer anything, Lina started to talk.

"Nah, Zelgadiss isn't here" The redhead assured in an obvious mocking tone, "I bet he left at some point because Zelgadiss was looking at that beautiful princess." Then, Lina started to move her hands along her own shape, simulating something, "…With beautiful full breasts, nice figure and killer butt… Surely he is trying to get a date!"

Everybody listened to Lina in wonder, except Xelloss who never seemed to be surprised; but Amelia was the first in reacting. She understood perfectly the implications of Lina's words, and even if the redhead was just making fun of him, the subtle meaning was clear.

"I DO NOT CARE!!" Amelia shouted suddenly, in an unusual rage.

Yes, Amelia was very clear about her reasons to be angry with him. It wasn't because the chimera was running after Miwan; it was because he had failed her, abandoning her and everybody else.

* * *

To be continued in the next chapter-3: **_"My Decision"._**


	3. Chapter3 My Decission

***Disclaimer**: _Slayers belongs to Mr. Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui, Tkyo TV soft, Fumination, etc, etc... I don't own anything of Slayers franchise. This is just a fanwork to be happy reading it._

***Author Notes:** This is a contest story. Basically **"What if Miwan would have been a real woman instead a man**?" from NEXT-Ep 17. This story follows the events of that "drag" episodie, but this time Miwan is a real woman, and we know Zelgadiss felt very attracted by her in that episodie. Basically this explains what would happen in such case. I talked with my friend **Nadessiko** (another fanfic author), about this, so we got a conclussion. This story is, indeed, the narration of that conclussion. So enjoy it!

Also, special thanks to **Earthstar-chan**, who beta readed this form me, correcting the typos and grammar mistakes. Thank you so much.

On this chapter, the first part is tied with the anime episodie, but events are totally changed in order to turn Miwan into a woman. **Coments and constructive critizism are most welcome.**

* * *

**Chapter3- My Decision.**

**Z**elgadiss had arrived to a certain place in the mountain forest. It wasn't too far from Femille's capital city, but certainly it wasn't some usual place. At first, it could get mistaken for any mountain's lake, but it wasn't anything like that: the place was very quiet, the water was dark and crystalline, and certainly there weren't any of those annoying dark flies and sand flies that filled places like that; the birds seemed to be quiet around there; even with his sharp ears, he couldn't catch any of the typical sounds in a place like that. It meant that spring wasn't a common lake, which turned out to have a big carved monolith in square shape placed in the center of the lake itself.

Was this the Purification Spring that Zelgadiss had heard those guards talk about?

He didn't know, but he saw how Miwan, without taking off her shoes, entered in the water and headed quietly towards the monolith in question.

"_What's she doing?_" Zelgadiss wondered. If that lake was the Purification spring, then shouldn't Miwan be completely avoiding that place?

The answer came out when the Femille's princess rolled up her dark skirt and pulled out a big spiky mace, and then she raised it with obvious intentions.

Zelgadiss reacted before she made the fatal strike. Doing that wouldn't solve her problem, but it also would spoil the reason he had come to this wrecked country.

"Miwan!!" he shouted, this time not hiding his natural voice.

The Femille's princess stopped mid-air. She was surprised to hear that male voice, but she knew several things about her kingdom and she also knew who could be the owner of that voice because she already had heard it several times on that intense day. Even perhaps she was too ashamed of what she was going to do. However…

"Do not do that. I know what you're trying to do; but even if you destroy that holy object, nothing would change for you!"

Miwan didn't dare move. It was truth, so terribly truth. She had thought that she'd destroy the object that would make her to be a priestess, and then things will be different for her; but Lulu –if it was her- has made clear it won't be possible. How could that female elf be so right? Or better, what she could do know? Finding herself in a cul-de-sac, she dropped the mace into the water and began to cry quietly. What could she do now? Her dreams had finished just before even beginning.

Zelgadiss' sharp ears caught her sobs. The princess was certainly in a life dilemma and the chimera man in disguise felt sorry for her once again; besides, she had been so kind with him since the beginning… Zelgadiss was usually oblivious about other people's problems, but this time he found himself wishing the best for that cute girl. Without thinking twice, he just spoke.

"Abandon your kingdom! Come with us!"

Even Miwan herself was surprised by Lulu's proposal; she just turned towards the female elf with a shock expression on her cute face. At this point, the chimera-man himself was surprised, too. Perhaps he had go too far with such a proposition and having Miwan next to them was too dangerous for her, mostly if he thought how many Mazoku were attacking them almost daily. But Miwan's hopeful face made him to forget it as she asked.

"What…?"

"You can come with us if you want to travel…" But his fight instincts warned him about something wrong in the lake and he just trailed off.

Suddenly a slimy thing, similar to very thick water, engulfed Miwan; the princess wasn't ready at all for such an attack and all she could do was scream in fear and hopeless. All of her moves had been quickly suppressed by that thick thing.

Zelgadiss knew better; he knew the thick thing should be a low rank Mazoku, a lesser demon; some scary creature, yes, but that can be fought with a high will, and that was something Zelgadiss had a lot; he wasn't going to waste his magical power on such a lame creature. The chimera bought his hand towards the fluffy white cloak on his back and muted some words; suddenly, his big bastard sword, appeared in his hand, ready and deadly as usual, and the cape notoriously less heavy than just some seconds before. The chimera man focused all his will on his sharp blade and attacked the slimy thing.

"Let Miwan go off!" he shouted.

And it worked; his sword cut Miwan's prison easily, by the corner of his eye, he could see how she dropped in the water again, free of the slimy thing.

But it was a mistake; Zelgadiss didn't think the slim water was "all" the lake, not only something that had imprisoned Miwan. Now, they both got caught by that thing again. What was it? Some kind of defensive spell lay on that holy spring? The chimera didn't know what to think, but he hardly could worried about it because he found all his chimerical power was useless against thick water, neither the will focused on his blade, which dropped on his hand.

Zelgadiss had to admit he was in a big trouble.

* * *

**W**hen Amelia came to the Purification Spring, the place that for some reason Lina and Gourry seemed to know where it was already, she found a terrifying spectacle. Certainly Zelgadiss was with Miwan, something that she knew could be possible that made her terribly upset… but the current situation wasn't very serious and she knew well enough what it meant. Amelia wasn't going to put her personal interest or frustration in the middle of an obvious' threat.

Zelgadiss and Miwan were trapped in the water, or rather, some thick fluid that seemed to be water. It had to be terribly strong because she knew how powerful Zelgadiss was and the chimera man seemed hopelessly trapped by that thing. The dark haired princess was wondering what that was when something towered from the water, reveling itself as Evia, the lesser Mazoku that had attacked them in the counter. Now, it was like a finger made of water, but it had dark holes as eyes, and an equally dark mouth that didn't move when it talked –as usually happened with Mazoku-; but in this case, instead taking a flesh form, this Mazoku had acquire water form, being able to control the water itself, which made him terrible in such a place. The holy object placed in the middle of the lake, didn't seem to have any effect on it.

Amelia didn't know what to do exactly, Lina warned her about the risk that meant to attack the water when Zelgadiss himself and the Femille's princess were engulfed by its body. However, she heard the chimera man in disguise cursed the Mazoku… Perhaps Zelgadiss hadn't thought it was a Mazoku, but hearing him to talk meant he hadn't run of power yet.

But, as payment, Evia started to attack them, knowing they couldn't do anything against the water-like creature. In spite of herself, Amelia bitted the dust under Evia's attack.

* * *

**Z**elgadiss watched the fight in anger; he had been wrong thinking the slummy thing was some kind of odd spell laid on the Purification Spring for protecting it, but it was a Mazoku, and now he blamed himself for such a mistake, because if he would know it was a Mazoku in the beginning, he wouldn't made such a stupid mistake. It was a mistake that had put Miwan, the rest of the group and himself in a real danger.

His chimerical eyes allowed him to see under the water without problem, even if that water was under the spell of a Mazoku; not like Miwan, who had her eyes closed because the water that had surrounded her. To tell the truth, Miwan barely could keep her breath for much longer, which meant she could die because she was suffocating by the water that Evia was. Still, he could catch the hopeless scream that merged from her throat.

The chimera man could remain awake like that for longer; sure, he could feel the oppression around him, but he hadn't gone this far just to die under such a pathetic lesser demon. The rest of the group –except Xelloss, who seemed to have disappeared again- could be immobilized because they were too afraid of hurting him or Miwan with any of their attacks. But it also meant Evia (or whatever was its name) was too busy attacking the others. He had time to think of a strategy.

But Miwan just couldn't remain like that any longer.

"Miwan…"

The chimera man didn't think of himself as a hero, but he had to do something.

Before Evia had the chance to do something, Zelgadiss body was engulfed by the effect of an offensive White Magic spell that he had learned from Amelia recently. It was a sacred place, and those spells had the particularity to be offensive only with mean powers, thus it would keep Miwan –and himself- safe, even if the spell ruined his disguise, as a side effect. Perhaps it was the effect of the water, but the spell flames shined as red fire instead the usual white flash. Evia, of course, caught something was very wrong to him and turned towards the chimera man without being able to do something. Lina, Amelia and the rest looked at him in wonder, even Miwan was surprised.

Finally, Evia' slimy body exploded and Zelgadiss could free himself along with Miwan; his fake woman dress was ruined, but he didn't care; being free to move again, his brown demon part acted and he jumped towards Miwan, whose slim body was about to splash into the water again; he caught her in mid air and jumped again till he landed smoothly on the grass covered back around the lake.

"You're safe, now" he said Miwan with a smile.

Miwan coughed, trying to erase the water inside her throat, and then looked at him with shocked eyes. Lulu wasn't a female elf anymore, but a man… A very unusual one. Miwan was just as shocked as amazed. That man –which was certainly a man-, was very strange; his face remained white because of the thick makeup that obviously covered it, but his skin was certainly dark blue, and it was made of stone. In fact, his entire body was covered in rough stones scattered randomly around his shape. Was he a male elf? Perhaps, because he had long ears, although she didn't know elves were actually made of stone.

Still, Miwan had been just saved by a man disguised as a woman, and he had been worried by her all this time. The person she had entrusted since the first time she had seen him, turned to be into something very different.

"This… this cannot be!" she mused, her voice still weak. "Mss… Lulu?" asked tentatively.

"My real name is Zelgadiss" the stone man answered, this time using his normal voice, "I don't want to deceive you anymore."

Now, it was clear this Zelgadiss guy had been in drag all this time in order to enter in the Femille kingdom, but the current events had ruined his disguise. Miwan just gaped as Zelgadiss left her on the ground softly.

"Wait here" the Lulu-man said, "I'll finish that Mazoku."

Miwan was just even more surprised.

At this point, everybody realized that they could fight Evia more easily, and the Mazoku was obviously damaged by the Megiddo Flare spell, and also confused because things weren't as that thing had thought. Besides that, Evia also had mistaken Lina for a man, but Zelgadiss wanted to solve things all by himself.

He wasn't the kind of man that didn't fight his problems.

"Wait, Lina!" Zelgadiss shouted, "This one is mine!"

Even Lina was surprised by his sudden demand. But she knew it was better to let Zelgadiss go on when he was in that state.

Zelgadiss wanted to eliminate that lesser Mazoku in all ways, better making suffering. It was going to pay the damaged that had caused on him and Miwan, as well the rest. He didn't want to be taking easy for such a creature. Therefore, the chimera jumped into the water with all the grace that his chimerical physical skills allowed him, and allowed him to be trapped by Evia, who obviously thought that trapping him was a good idea. It was what Zelgadiss had expected since the beginning, and he had been chanting a spell all this time. When Evia had wrapped him again with his thick water fake body, Zelgadiss made a gesture crossing his hands in front of his face, and later, he moved them towards Evia's main body.

Amelia knew the spell. She knew that if Zelgadiss had entered in battle so reckless, it was because he had a plan. The black haired princess didn't hear him chant the spell, but she recognized his hands' posture because she had done it many times.

"La-Tilt" she mused.

Like a mode prophecy, a very big white flash of flames engulfed the entire lake surface, blinding everybody for a moment. The stronger astral attack deleted any clue of Evia's existence. Anything the wrecked thing could have done was nothing right after being hit with "_La-Tilt_".

Zelgadiss stone body dropped into the dark lake water, this time free of Evia or any other threat. The chimera man turned towards the group in the bank with a triumphant smile on his stone lips, which was still covered in makeup.

"Well done, Mr. Zelgadiss!" Amelia shouted in joy, genuinely happy to see how things had turned out. Not only had Zelgadiss defeated Evia neatly, but she also had proved to be a good teacher because "_Megiddo Flare_" was a White Magic spell that she had taught him recently, and the result had been neat considering how clueless Zelgadiss was about White Magic.

Gourry, however, had a different view of things. The blond swordsman might not know about magic, but over the time he had learned a couple of things. "Yeah, well done… but I think you overdid a little, huh?"

The blond swordsman had reasons to think so because not only Evia had been defeated in a chorus of white flames, but because all the water in the lake had been… erased… and now only a poll of mud remained. It wasn't the Purification Spring anymore, but "the Purification mud". Zelgadiss, however, shrugged, and he just went to catch his own sword and daggers, which laid in the mud ground along with Miwan's mace and the cloak of his disguise dress, which had survived the "_Megiddo Flare_" because it was enchanted.

"Oh, my…!" Lina exclaimed, "This boy has always been so… zealous!" The redhead looked at Miwan, who was watching Zelgadiss-Lulu with a pensive expression, "Although I can't blame him… He had strong reasons for acting like that" Lina's mocking giggles sounded around the place.

Amelia caught Lina's words and looked at the Femille's princess, Lina and finally Zelgadiss, who was having a rough time moving around the mud. It was a rare view because usually the chimera man was very agile, but now he walked almost clumsily by the mud poll and still wet because of Evia's water body. To tell the truth, perhaps this was the first time that the chimera man walked around being half-naked (and not caring about that), even if it was because he was moving around the mud.

"Perhaps he likes that kind of baths…" Gourry suggested, although Amelia didn't know if the blonde Elmekian was being serious or just teasing.

But what surprised her the most was Zelgadiss didn't make any scene because everybody was seeing him almost naked; neither had he covered himself with the white cloth piece he had used to carry out all his pertinences. It was odd, but again, she noticed that Zelgadiss didn't feel truly ashamed of his body as part of himself, but ashamed of his body had been used as a Rezo's tool for accomplishing the Red Priest's plans. And now, the chimera just had used his skill to save some lives. There was an evident difference.

Besides that, Amelia found she couldn't keep apart her eyes from his frame; even when she had helped him to dress that disguise in the early morning; she hadn't caught so many details of his body shape. Again, she thought Zelgadiss looked like a marble walking statue with silvery hair, but he also… Amelia shook her head, trying to put away those thoughts that made her to blush quite furiously. She felt ashamed of thinking on him in such way, and better if nobody caught how red her face was.

Oblivious about the expectation he had awakened in Amelia, Zelgadiss caught his daggers, the white cloak of his disguise and his sword, when suddenly he stopped and turned back towards them.

Just in that moment, Lina felt a sharp dagger pointing to her neck.

* * *

"**M**other!" Miwan exclaimed, turning towards Lina. The Femille's queen herself was threatening Lina's life with a dagger pointing at her throat. In fact, everybody else also was threatened with long mozzetas held by the female soldiers that came with their queen; they weren't many but the group had been so absent by the recent fight they hadn't notice the royal guard's presence.

"Shut up, Miwan!" her mother ordered and the Femille's princess had to accept it. The blond woman should be very angry, because she kept menacing Lina's life as she kept talking. "You have some nerve! Not only all you, filthy men, enter in our country disguised as a women, than you even destroy our Purification Spring!"

"Cht" Zelgadiss exclaimed; he wasn't being threatened, but his rabid action had got an unexpected consequence that now also meant a threat to the rest of the group.

"What are you talking about, missy?" Lina replied using her usual rude manners in spite talking with a royal. The rest of the group knew Lina enough for knowing she wanted to gain some time.

"I knew you and your group weren't what it seemed to be" the Femille's queen answered, "Since the guard caught my beloved daughter talking with that disgusting man –meaning Zelgadiss-, I ordered a patrol to watch your group closely because I smelled there was something wrong in your group. One of them even talked with you and informed me you were interested in the Purification Spring, our most holy object. And all you pretended so you could destroy it!"

Lina remembered the weird guard chief that had offered a red rose to Gourry, as some kind of twisted gif to "such beautiful blonde foreign woman". At first, Lina had laughed at her bodyguard's situation because she had found that guard chief was too masculine and perhaps was interested in Gourry, which made the scenario even more hilarious; but later he had to admit that guy –or chick- had provided to be very useful telling them a full explication of the Purification Spring.

---But in the end, that guard chief had turned into a spy and now they were in trouble.

Amelia didn't know this, but she felt the urge to clarify the situation and she turned towards the Femille's queen. She knew how to address to a royal.

"That's not true!" the dark haired princess shouted in polite manner, "We didn't destroy it on purpose!"

"Shut up, you commoner!" Miwan's mother ordered to Amelia, obviously without knowing who was addressing to her. "Every of those deeds are just unforgettable! You shall be executed!"

Zelgadiss watched the scene from the mud poll and still naked. He wasn't in a real threat, in fact, he could defeat every of those guards without using his sword or his magic at all… but such actions would put the rest of them in danger. If at least he could… Then, he noticed the shadows that everybody projected on the grassy ground, the usual long shadows or a summer's afternoon. He clenched one of his daggers in his fist, waiting for the right chance.

"_Oigh_! What nasty queen!" Martina exclaimed, obviously talking like she was used to do with everybody, which included other royalties, besides Amelia. "She just cannot understand what a Mazoku can do!"

Miwan's mother was amazed at those words, "A Mazoku? And what are those manners of addressing to a queen, commoner!?"

"I am not a commoner!" Martina exclaimed, raising on her legs, but still trembling and soaked by the strong water impact that Evia had done on her. "I am her highness Martina Xoana Mel Navratilova, the princess of the Xoana kingdom!"

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea Martina announced her real status like that, but the Femille's queen was shocked by Martina's sudden announcement and her dagger dropped from Lina's threat. It was just the move that Zelgadiss was waiting for.

"Lina, get off!" The chimera shouted and the red head sorceress obeyed, knowing that Zelgadiss meant to do something. And it was; as Lina pulled away from the Femille's queen, Zelgadiss throw his dagger towards the queen's shadow on the ground as Zelgadiss shouted again, "_Shadow snap_!"

The Femille's queen didn't know what happened, but suddenly, she found a dagger had buried into her shadow and she just couldn't move.

"Zelgadiss!" Miwan shouted, fearing he would do something bad to her mother, "What are you…?"

The chimera just didn't listen to any of them. He just jumped from the mud poll and rushed towards the queen, his sword in his hand, and pointed at her with his blade almost lazily. Everything was so fast and calculated that the guards obviously weren't used to that kind of attack because they barely could react when they found their queen had been trapped like that. Meanwhile, Gourry reacted quickly and just take off the mozzeta of the female guard that was pointing at him, and Amelia did the same; they were all far more used to real fights that any of those royal corps that doing it was even easy. Only the guard that threatened Martina remained in her post, but she obviously didn't dare to make any move since her direct prisoner claimed to be a princess and her own queen was being menaced. That royal guard member just knew better.

"What is this!? Magic!?" the Femille's queen exclaimed as she watched the dagger that kept her hold. Then, she raised the eyes and looked at the weird man that was in front of her, almost naked and holding a blade in one hand along with two daggers and a white piece of cloth in the other hand. He wasn't threatening her throat with his blade, but she knew he could use it in any moment and his mere presence was disturbing to her.

"You… you're a chimera!" The Femile's queen exclaimed as she was realizing of that, "One of those filthy men that accept to be turned into monsters to be warriors."

"Don't overact, Zel!" Lina warned.

"That's not your business, your highness." Zelgadiss answered, ignoring Lina. "But better if you listen what had happened here and let us go."

"Yes, mother, please!" Miwan pledge, placing herself next to Zelgadiss. "He saved my life!"

"What…?"

The rest of the group watched the scene in amazement; perhaps Miwan could solve the situation with Zelgadiss' help.

"A Mazoku contaminated the Purification Spring and made me its prisoner!" Miwan rushed to answer, choosing the right words to catch her mother's interest. "And Zelgadiss…" she glanced at him, "Saved me using his magic power! That's why the Purification Spring was destroyed! It was a Mazoku's fault not theirs!"

The Femille's queen was obviously overwhelmed by the events that her daughter had summarized. She hadn't seen any of that, just a bunch of men that were running around the place and had destroyed the holiest object in her small kingdom, the source of its power. But Miwan claimed it was a Mazoku's fault. It made sense a Mazoku would want to take over that place.

"What the princess Miwan says is true!" Martina added from her place, "It was a cursed Mazoku who was killed off before you saw him. But you just refuse to see the truth because you refuse to see how nice men can be!"

Lina heard her and sighed. She was still doubting if Martina' speech was being useful or not.

"Oh, c'mon, Martina!" the redhead sighed.

The Femille's queen was more interested in other kind of things, though.

"And you are… Xoana's princess?" her voice sounded as surprised as wary.

Martina nodded and said, "Of course, and I'm going to demonstrate it now showing you the royal crest!" And she started to search her Zomersther's crest in her regular clothes, "_Oigh_, I cannot find it!"

Miwan, however, looked at the rest of the girls gathered there. Her mother had said that Zelgadiss was a chimera, a kind of artificial warrior, which explained his odd features better than saying he was an elf; but since that curly haired girl was another princess like her, who were the rest?

"Then… who are you? And why have you been here?" Miwan asked, "Please, tell us. I don't want my mother to condemn you."

"Miwan…" her mother exclaimed.

"Ok, ok… perhaps it's time to put things clear already." Lina announced, trying to stand out in the middle of all these royalties.

"Please, your highness. We never wanted to cause havoc in your kingdom. It was totally an accident." Amelia explained, being faster that Lina's coming cocky self-introduction. "Neither the princess Martina nor me, wanted such thing to happened."

Miwan and her mother exchanged looks; obviously confused by the events, and later looked carefully at that girl with short black hair and blue eyes dressed with a Lincoln green outfit that also was soaked.

"You… your face…I find it familiar. Are you also a royalty?" the Femille's queen asked in awe as a light suspicious began to merge on her mind.

Amelia nodded, but her answer was vague. "We are related with royalties. And we all fight Mazoku. She's really Xoana's princess," Amelia summarized pointing at Martina, who still searching for Zomelsther's crest, "And we… we're closer to Seyruun's royalty."

Obviously Amelia didn't want to demonstrate her real identity. Even if her authority was higher than any other royalty there, her presence would create a diplomatic problem hard to explain, so her answer was quite accurate. Zelgadiss knew this and allowed Amelia to handle the situation, but Lina complained behind her muttering something about her lack of prominence.

"Seyruun's… royalty…" Miwan exclaimed as she raised her hands towards her mouth and her mother dropped her head defeated.

"I see now… Even if everything that has happened is a direct attack to Femille's holy laws, I can see the importance of you being here. Also the fact this chimera man has saved my beloved daughter."

Lina smiled with pride and Amelia placed next to her, ready for taking actions.

"I cannot put Femille into a diplomatic fight with Xoana or any other kingdom. The power of my kingdom resides on this fountain, and now it's destroyed. So I cannot help but let you go. My army cannot fight any other kingdom, even less a chimera warrior."

"Mother!" Miwan exclaimed.

Zelgadiss watched the Femille's queen being totally defeated. "So I can let you go then?" he asked.

"Yes. You're free. You have my word."

"Ok" and he dropped his blade and pulled out the dagger from the grass ground under the queen's feet. As he did so, her body trembled and almost collapsed on her knees, but Miwan was faster and caught her in time.

"I'm at your mercy." The blonde woman announced.

* * *

"**W**ooah, Lina! You know how to push the royalties." Gourry exclaimed, feeling far more relaxed, even if he knew that this time had been Zelgadiss and Martina, with a little help from Amelia, who had saved the situation in some twisted way.

"That's the fabulous Lina Inverse!" the redhead exclaimed with pride.

Amelia sighed, but Martina felt offended.

"What are you saying, Lina? It was been Xoana's influence that has saved every of you!" exclaimed the curly haired princess, shaking a fist.

"Yeah, well, whatever."

The Femille's queen sat on the grass, watching them, yet overwhelmed by the events; that group of foreign people had changed the politics in her country in just some hours, and she started to fear the redhead girl's truth identity, mostly when she was called "Lina Inverse". Could she be the so-called "Dragon Spookier" could have visited her kingdom with some royalties and changed everything? Incredible stories surrounded Lina Inverse and she also had learned about them.

"Mother… there is something else I want to tell you" Miwan said to her in quiet voice, kneeling next to her. "Now, since this is a royal cohort and their guards, I think I can ask you it."

"Are you going to tell that to your mother, Miwan?" Zelgadiss asked with his usual coldness and Miwan nodded. "Well done." He added with a smile.

"Tell her what, Zel?" Lina asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is there something else we have to know or what?"

Zelgadiss ignored Lina's question and watched closely how Miwan tried to talk with her mother about a certain issue.

"Mother… perhaps this isn't the best time to tell you this, but you know already I do not wish to become a priestess or a shrine maiden…" The golden eye girl spoke softly to her mother, "Now, the Purification Spring has been destroyed by that Mazoku and…"

"Evia was her name." Lina added, as she wanted to make more proof of what had happened.

"And I always wanted to travel around the world, knowing more places than just these mountains and forests."

"Are you trying to say you want to leave?" The queen asked in low voice.

Miwan nodded, "Yes. In fact, Zelgadiss offered me to go with them."

The Femille's queen was surprised.

The royal guards were surprised.

Lina's group also was surprised.

In fact… everybody was really surprised. It could have been called "general shocking surprise".

"What did she just say!?" Lina exclaimed.

"Mr. Zelgadiss, did you offered princess Miwan to come with us!?" Amelia sounded as surprised as the rest, but also lightly disappointed.

"Yes, I did." The chimera answered in a cold voice, not giving further explications.

Even Gourry was looking at him surprised, and making Gourry to be surprised was something hard to do.

"Is there any reason to make my daughter come with you, chimera warrior?" The Femille's queen asked to Zelgadiss trying to sound authoritarian.

"Your daughter… needs to learn about the world if she has to become the next Femille's queen" Zelgadiss explained to her, "And many of us are related with Xoana or Seyruun's royalties, as my travel companion here said." He added glancing at Amelia. "It would be a good experience for your daughter."

Amelia's jaw dropped; she just couldn't believe what Zelgadiss had thought. He, obviously, wasn't thinking on Femille's future safety for telling the queen those things; he had hidden reasons; certain hidden reasons that Amelia found really awkward.

"But Mr. Zelgadiss…" she began, but Lina put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't try to stop him now, Amelia. He got hooked to Miwan and now he only wants to spend time with her" the redhead explained. "I don't like the idea of her traveling with us… but well, Zel never has been so interested in somebody." Then, Lina began to giggle.

Amelia understood what Lina said but she wished the redhead sounded more serious instead finding the chimera man's behavior so funny; Zelgadiss was fond of Miwan because he… liked her. It was hard to believe and Amelia, once again, felt disappointed with it.

As Lina and Amelia talked about the issue, Miwan kept trying to convince her mother over the convenience of her taking a trip with those "important" travelers.

"I can see why it's important for you, Miwan." The Femille's queen had lost her previous cockiness, and now she sounded truly defeated. "But can we trust them?"

"Mr. Zelgadiss… the chimera man… saved me, mother" Miwan answered, "I already told you that."

"Here is it!" Martina exclaimed finally, obviously absent of the current events. "Here is the Zomelsthers' crest! The royal crest of Xoana's crown!"

Both Femille's royalties, in fact everybody, looked at Martina, who hold the ugly crest in front of everybody as mute evidence of her royal origin; her face, though, was totally proud.

"Is that… Xoana's crest?" Miwan asked, doubtful.

Zelgadiss sighed, but the Femille's queen was faster in answering.

"Yes, it's. I can recognize Xoana's crest anywhere."

Martina's proud laughs were obviously everywhere. Again, she felt like she was ruling a nation.

"Ok, Zel… I think it's time you cover yourself a little, don't you think?" Lina told him.

"Why don't you tell that to Gourry, too?" the chimera man answered.

* * *

**L**ina crossed her arms under her small chest, trying to look resolute.

"It's enough, Zel!" she exclaimed, "We just cannot allow that little princess to come with us! It would delay us and it is definitively dangerous for her!"

The group was back in Femille's royal palace, dressing in their usual clothes, which helped to reveal a little further about their real identities. The queen had spared their lives after learning they were a group of Xoana and Seyruun royalties that had saved her daughter from certain Mazoku called Evia, even if in the process, the Purification Spring was destroyed in the process.

---Well, it was destroyed, but not the moonlit placed in the center, which meant that Femille had a chance yet, even if she had affirmed the "Purification Spring" was the source of her kingdom's power. That people just didn't know the truth and the Femille's queen hadn't reasons to give any further explication.

Fortunately, the monolith was safe now, and her daughter also was safe. But now the problem was the proposal that Miwan had requested her.

Since the day that Miwan learned she had to become a shrine maiden, she always had done the possible to avoid it, but now she also had told her mother that her real wish was to travel around the world like those royalties did, and learning new things. At first, Miwan's mother had refused that idea, but after later events, she had started to change her mind.

Yeah, the group was made by a collection of priests, sorcerers and at least two mercenaries, one of them a chimera. And yes, those mercenaries were men, but she knew that chimeras were quite safer than regular men for a woman. That, and counting with the fact that one of those royalties was the Princess Martina herself, from Xoana, a little kingdom that belonged to the Coast Confederated States; it also was a great opportunity for setting up a nice relationship between two countries. That, and the fact that Seyruun was also involved in it.

The Femille's queen wasn't happy with the fact that Xoana and Seyruun were poking their noises in the politics of her little kingdom, but it was better to be in good terms with those two nations than entering into a diplomatic affair.

---The only thing that she had to make clear was her daughter wouldn't blah about certain a monolith.

On the other hand, if Miwan made a trip with that people and learned a couple of things about the outside world, then perhaps she could be convinced about how good it was living in Femille, being a part of wars, conflicts and basically the abusive treatment that many women suffered in other countries. Miwan will just learn the hard way to become into Femille' shrine maiden, no matter what.

As a result, Miwan got her mother's permission to travel with that eccentric group of royalties as long as she didn't talk about their real identities or the source of power in Femille. Miwan, of course, received the news in joy and become really happy afterwards; she changed her regular fine clothes into something more common and handy, such like a pair of dark green hoses and a tunic to mid length in light grey color, along with a short enchanted cape where she wore her belongs, and a pair of shot leather boots. Her cameo crest of her royal family will remain hidden in the cape, along the valuable possessions and her money.

Miwan, of course, was very excited, even with the change of her regular clothes.

But besides that, there were people that just weren't too happy with the idea of Miwan traveling with the "royalties group". And one of them happened to be Lina Inverse.

"…I agree with Mss Lina, Mr. Zelgadiss." Amelia was the other one in disappointed, of course. "We're involved into something very dangerous, so we just cannot put a princess into such danger. It even could create a diplomatic problem."

"And she doesn't know anything about magic, fighting or anything else" Lina added. "You had to save her in the fight against Evia because she couldn't do anything."

"Lina… I'm not asking your permission to make other people to join us!" Zelgadiss answered in sharp tone.

Lina recognized Zelgadiss' voice tone. It was quiet but also very sharp; she knew when the chimera man talked in that tone, he was being very serious and it was better not teasing him. However, the redhead wasn't about to give up her common sense just because Zelgadiss wasn't being logical. Or rather, he was thinking only with certain part of himself.

"It isn't a matter of permissions, Zel…"Lina began, "It's a matter of safety! She doesn't seem how to fight and we're involved in something dangerous. We just can't put her in such risk!"

Zelgadiss glanced at Amelia, who was unusually sided with Lina in that matter, although he understand better the Seyruun's princess reasons to think so than Lina's. Indeed, it was the reason because he was facing up to Lina.

"Oh, really?" he asked, almost in mocking tone. "As far I remember, none of us asked for Martina's company and now, she's traveling with us. And she doesn't know anything really useful about magic."

"Oh, my! How rude!" Martina exclaimed since the armchair where she was sit. "I'm here, rude chimera man! Can't you be polite when you talk about somebody that is in front of you?"

Martina had reasons to be angry, but Zelgadiss just ignored her. He had learned long ago to ignore the insults towards his persona.

"C'mon, Zel!" Lina replied, "The only reason because Martina is traveling with us is because she comes with Xelloss!"

Amelia glanced at her "co-worker" and later to Lina, "Well, I don't mind she comes with us" the dark haired princess said with an awkward smile.

"And that makes me wonder why that wrecked priest is with us, anyway." Zelgadiss added with a grunt, meaning Xelloss.

The mocking priest didn't lose his usual smile and just answered, "Well, I'm searching for the Claire Bible like you are. You're useful for me and I'm useful for you. It's very easy."

Lina sighed, knowing what Zelgadiss wanted to say, although in certain way she agreed with him about Xelloss. She knew he didn't like at all to be bossed around, so he just would keep arguing with her about what he wanted to do and what Lina didn't want to. Gourry, fortunately, wasn't like that because the blonde mercenary was use to accept Lina's decisions without questioning; but Zelgadiss wasn't anything like that. No wonder why Amelia always had a small chat with him about what to do before acting; she couldn't boss him, either.

The problem was Zelgadiss' sudden decision about getting Miwan with them was very obvious.

"You know, Zel?" she asked, almost teasing. "This is the first time I see you acting like a man and it's kind of fun… But this is just too much!"

There was a brief flash of red in Zelgadiss' face, but he overcame that feeling and just sentenced what he wanted since the beginning.

"Miwan will come with us. If she can't fight or do anything else, I'll take care of her. I don't care about what you think, but that's her desire and I want to accomplish it."

"Ouffff!" Lina exclaimed, massaging her templates. "Ok, ok! Go on! Even if it's just because for the sake of seeing you with a girl you like, then go ahead. But stop giving bizarre reasons to convince us."

"I'm not going to give you that pleasure, Lina. And don't worry; I'll take care of Miwan."

Amelia listened them with wide eyes, realizing that Zelgadiss' interest in the Femille's princess wasn't something casual, but more intense. It was almost scary to see the chimera man acting like a man that took a fancy in a cute girl.

But Zelgadiss also was right: none of them had asked permission to the rest to join the group. So why he had to ask the others if they wanted Miwan come along with them? Amelia had to admit she just couldn't be against Zelgadiss' decision, in spite that it bothered her till the end.

Well, even if Miwan joined the group, it didn't mean that she couldn't be Zelgadiss' friend.

"…In such case, we'll tell Princess Miwan about our real identities when she comes with us" The Seyruun's princess announced.

* * *

To be continued on chapter-4 **"_The Two Princesses". _**


	4. Chapter4 The Two Princesses

***Disclaimer**: _Slayers belongs to Mr. Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui, Tkyo TV soft, Fumination, etc, etc... I don't own anything of Slayers franchise. This is just a fanwork to be happy reading it._

***Author Notes:** This is a contest story. Basically **"What if Miwan would have been a real woman instead a man**?" from NEXT-Ep 17. This story follows the events of that "drag" episodie, but this time Miwan is a real woman, and we know Zelgadiss felt very attracted by her in that episodie. Basically this explains what would happen in such case. I talked with my friend **Nadessiko** (another fanfic author), about this, so we got a conclussion. This story is, indeed, the narration of that conclussion. So enjoy it!

Also, special thanks to **Earthstar-chan**, who beta readed this form me, correcting the typos and grammar mistakes. Thank you so much.

On this chapter, things are totally original, but tied to the canon. **Warning**: Zelgadiss is meaner in my stories, closer to the novels version.

**Coments and constructive critizism are most welcome.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Two Princesses.**

**T**wo weeks had already passed since Miwan had started to travel with them; after the initial meeting, the group seemed to have reached a new routine of moves and interaction, some daily activities that Amelia couldn't fit in several but often casual activities.

The fact was that, as usual, Lina and Gourry moved up altogether, which was they were used to doing; of course, the redhead sorceress also talked with everybody as they walked. Sometimes she just chatted with Amelia, other times with Zelgadiss, and even some rare times, she also did with Xelloss or Martina, which was quite surprising; but in all those times, Gourry always was next to her, acting like he was supposed to be: Lina's bodyguard.

Meanwhile, Martina always traveled next to Xelloss, who obviously seemed to be her latest crush; it was doubly surprising because Martina's crushes always had been as short as intense, and hardly could be took as a serious relationship, but this time it seemed to be quite stable. Amelia didn't know what kind of relationship they both shared because Xelloss certainly seemed to enjoy Martina's presence next to him, but he didn't act like a regular boyfriend; most of the time, the priest dressed with black velvet seemed to be keeping a closer eye on Martina and Lina, both, as he was very interested in their relationship. Whatever it was, Xelloss' presence seemed to have calmed down the curly haired princess, just enough to even becoming a nice travel companion. Amelia had found herself quite surprised when she started to share some interesting chats about politics and girl matters with Martina. However, Amelia was overwhelmed by Martina's passionate speeches about Xoana and her future married life with Xelloss; which made her relationship with the mocking priest even more bizarre. Amelia, of course, kept her mouth closed at those ideas. At least their current situation seemed to have settled down the differences between the two countries.

But overall, Amelia wasn't in the position to be judging anybody's relationships, mostly when she was facing up her new situation in the group.

Till now, Amelia always had traveled next to Lina (her best female friend) and next to Zelgadiss (her best male friend). But now, that dynamic was broken, even if Lina and Gourry remained pretty much the same and Martina enjoyed her current position as "Xelloss' girlfriend". Amelia, usually, would have been traveling with Zelgadiss; but after Miwan joined the group, it had changed. Zelgadiss was always with Miwan except when the group was splinted by genders, and the Femille's princess seemed to enjoy his presence. As a result, Amelia had been kicked out of the little couple she formed with him; not as a lovers, but as a friends that traveled together. Therefore Amelia just found herself being… alone, in most of daily events.

Of course, Amelia still shared the "girl moments" with Lina, Martina and now, also Miwan; and she also shared the table to eat with them, shared the tent with her travel companions, the meals, the inns… but she was alone. She couldn't sit anymore next to Zelgadiss; neither could she talk with him about magic or just this or that. She did when all they were gathered together, but not the two alone, not anymore, because her position had been replaced by Miwan.

And now, Amelia could feel how much she missed him, and how important he had been in all her travels with Lina since the day they met for first time, even if that encounter hadn't been nice.

Amelia was mature enough to deal with Miwan's presence. She couldn't blame the shy princess to be there; Miwan was a nice person and had a strong conviction about what was good or bad, which was even more than what Amelia could tell about mostly of her travel companions (only Gourry seemed to have a high moral sense, and perhaps Shilfild, but she wasn't there), and she also had provided a lot of information about her kingdom. In fact, meeting her had been a good chance to tie up the relationship between their two countries.

However, the fact was Miwan had replaced her next to Zelgadiss; the chimera just seemed to enjoy her presence so much, and he was always talking with her, something that was weird for everyone, even for Gourry or Amelia, who under several reasons, had been the closer persons to him in some way.

Precisely that was what shocked her the most. Zelgadiss never had been "nice" or easy going, to say the least; of course, over the time, Amelia had gotten very close to him, Amelia had learned how to deal with his nasty manners and selfish behavior, and overall his lack of moral sense. Amelia had learned better and now, she understood Zelgadiss pretty well and she shared a nice relationship with him.

Or at least she thought so. For some reason, Miwan has been able to get closer to him breaking a record, faster than any of them. And the reason was painfully obvious: Zelgadiss liked Miwan.

Amelia was learning something else. Lina was clear about that; at first the redhead just was clearly oppose to the idea of Miwan traveling with them, but later she just used it to make remarkable ironic comments about the situation, teasing Zelgadiss about his relationship with Miwan, which were quickly suppressed by the chimera himself. In spite of the obvious, Zelgadiss hated to be told, and he just didn't admit to be teased in any sense, something that Lina loved to do with others. However, everybody had learned something else about the moody chimera, and Amelia was the first in learning it.

Zelgadiss was a man. And he liked cuties.

* * *

**M**iwan was surprised about everything. Almost all her daily experiences were something new for her. For the first time in her life, she was actually traveling outside the barriers of her kingdom, heading towards the north, to the Kataart Mountains. And everything was new and exciting.

First, her travel companions: three girls –besides herself, of course- and three boys. One of the girls was Lina Inverse, the infamous dark sorceress that everybody feared in some degree; the rest were all princesses (which included her), one of them was Martina Xoana Mel, the princess of Xoana, as she had demonstrated after the fight against Evia; the other was even more surprising, Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, the princess of the powerful kingdom of Seyruun. After finding out who was her, Miwan was just in awe because she never thought the princess of such powerful kingdom, could travel around the world so freely, and even accepting to be a priestess. Miwan couldn't help but admire the short haired girl and feeling even happier to travel around like that with such prominent characters.

The men, on the other hand, were a mercenary swordsman that was Lina's bodyguard, a mocking priest (who, honestly, Miwan wondered how that guy could become a priest) and her savoir, a chimera enameled Zelgadiss. They were all friends in some degree, or at least Miwan thought so, and certainly Miwan was happy to be surrounded by such notorious characters like these; however, she felt quite uneasy with men, even if she had a high concept of Zelgadiss.

To tell the truth, Miwan knew many supposed women back Femille, actually were men in drag, pretty much like Zelgadiss had been in Femille. In fact, that was a silent secret that everybody kept quiet because of the fear to be executed; but even so she wasn't use to be surrounded by them so closely. Their manners were direct and rough, used a lot of slangs when they talked, and even their body' smell was different. So their closeness was something that made her feel uneasy. Zelgadiss, however, was somehow, different to her; he was very nice to her, and always kept a closer eye on her, speaking with her almost the half of the time he opened his mouth to say something. It was obvious the chimera man was very fond on her because he never spoke any further with the rest of the group.

Miwan, however, noticed that the Seyruun's princess, somebody that she felt a high respect for, also tried to talk with them when Zelgadiss was explaining her something about this or that, but after several tries, she just gave it up, and later began to walk alone. The shy princess noticed that Amelia seemed to be a bubbly person, always smiling and cheerful, even with commoners… but when she was walking alone across the sand paths towards the mountains; she seemed to be covered by a gloomy air. Somehow, Miwan wondered about her mood change, and she felt the impulse of asking Zelgadiss about it… but she just didn't find the courage to do so.

The Femille's princess had been raised between women and she just didn't know how to talk about personal matters with a man.

* * *

**T**he day she had observed one of those mood changes in Amelia's behavior, the group finally had arrived to a village placed in the frontier of Kalmaart Dukedom. It wasn't so far from Vezendy city, yet as what usually happened in frontier villages; it was a trading place because the commerce caravans and the bandits that attacked them. Unfortunately for Lina, none of those had decided to attack a group of random travelers.

The village, however, was plenty of stores, counters and of course, inns. That's what Lina loved about commercial villages; they always were plenty of interesting things where to make money or just wasting it. Besides that, many buildings were being revised and repaired; the city was in the north, near the mountains, which meant the winters were long and cold, so houses and stores just had to be ready to spend the winter, and local people used the sunny summer to repair roofs and gates, collecting provisions and basically doing all the deeds to spend the hard cold days in winter.

Besides that, the village had plenty of street sellers that provided people of interesting snacks food, which was enough to make Lina happy.

"It would be perfect if this village would have some spring waters baths or something!" The redhead announced.

"I think you'll have to wait for it, flat-chested sorceress" Martina answered.

Before Lina would make something go boom, Xelloss intervened, "Well, but surely Lina will find the best inn with the best dishes."

Certainly the mocking priest knew how to calm down Lina, and certainly his presence and his relationship with Martina, made things go easier.

"Take note of this, dear Martina" he added turning towards the curly haired princess, "It's better to take advantage of things than fighting them."

"What kind of advice is that!?" Lina exclaimed, knowing that Xelloss meant her.

Amelia just ignored the issue; she had been around the group long enough to know better and, for her, Xelloss just wanted to tease Lina for some bizarre reason; perhaps even because the priest wanted to make clear that nobody could tease him. The dark haired princess thought actually nobody could piss off Xelloss.

So she just let it go and pointed at a certain building with masonry stonewalls and inclined roof.

"Look! I think this is a safe inn. It seems to be clean and firm, at least. Don't you think?"

Zelgadiss found himself raising an eyebrow under the hood that covered his head; he was surprised because it was obvious that Amelia had learned many things since he met her back in Sairag city. Now, Amelia could recognize a safe place with just a brief look. Certainly the princess had learned several things.

But his thoughts were stopped when Miwan poked at him softly.

"Zelgadiss… could you tell me… what is this for?"

Miwan was such a sweetheart, but sometimes, she made pointless questions. He sighed before answering, "We want to arrange rooms in a safe inn; some place where the food is good and cheap, and also must be clean. The rest of the guests must also be good; otherwise we could get into some trouble… That's why Amelia has suggested that inn; she thinks it's safe enough."

"But last time we were in an inn, we didn't worry about things and all we shared the same room." Miwan had thought it was the usual in traveling accommodations.

"It is because that place was a road motel for merchant caravans. There, we cannot arrange individual rooms, but we have to share them with other travelers, and since we're a group, we share the same room all together"

"But then, we'll have our own room?"

"Probably, yes. It depends on…" Zelgadiss raised his view and looked at Lina and Amelia, who were immerse in another argue; then, he pointed at the two girls with a soft move of his chin. "It depends on them."

"No way, Miss Lina!" Amelia complained. "You just cannot order me to use Seyruun's crest to pay for every whim you have!"

"But Amelia, it's for our own good sake!" The redhead complained. "I cannot pay everybody's accommodations! And that inn surely is cheap for some reason!"

"I'm not saying I'm asking you to pay mine!"

The discussion followed in those terms for quite a while; as usual, Gourry tried to calm down Lina, Martina complained about her lack of money, Xelloss said he didn't care and Zelgadiss just sighed till something was decided. Usually, he took sides with Amelia, but this time he just announced that he will pay Miwan's accommodation.

"Ok! Then we'll arrange two big rooms! One for we, girls, and one for you, boys!" Amelia announced. "But I won't pay it; everybody will pay their part."

Gourry sighed; lately Amelia didn't take things easily and she sounded harsh when she talked. And it was obvious she had become angrier when Zelgadiss said that Miwan's accommodation was his.

"I'm fine with that" Lina answered crossing her arms; it was the cheaper option. "We'll stay in that inn, but we'll take our lunch somewhere else."

"Well, that's almost the usual" Gourry answered; then, he turned towards Xelloss, "What about you? Will you stay with us this time?"

"Eh? Oh, no. I'll go to the local temple" the mocking priest answered.

"But sir Xelloss…" Martina encored behind him, "Won't you go with us to a meal, either?"

"I cannot, Martina." Xelloss smiled at her, "My stomach doesn't accept things with vinegar and that's the usual dishes here."

"Not enough Seyruun's ice-creams, huh?" Lina said in mocking tone.

Zelgadiss looked at the priest by the corner of his chimerical eyes; he often wondered what kind of priest rank he had because every time they arrived to a city, Xelloss just disappeared, explaining he went to sleep at the local temple. Zelgadiss was grateful with that because he just hardly could stand the mocking priest so close to him, and since Xelloss had joined the group, he never stayed with them at night sharing a room with Gourry and Zelgadiss himself.

Martina, however, was upset. "Tonight, too? Why? I was hoping we could arrange a room for only us, dear Xelloss."

"Martina… I've told you many times that you must learn to be patient."

"But I want to sleep with you."

At this point, everybody, but Miwan, was flushing in some degree; Martina and Xelloss were obviously discussing their couple relationship in front of everybody and they didn't seem to care and things were becoming awkward.

"Ok, ok! Let's cut it and move on!" Lina cut it off, "We'll arrange the two rooms. Xelloss can pass the night wherever he wants." And saying this, she headed towards the inn followed closely by Gourry, as usual.

When the blonde swordsman passed next to Zelgadiss, he said in low voice,

"Don't worry. I don't think Xelloss share the room with us, neither have I thought he keeps discussing with Martina about it. He isn't like that."

"Fortunately…" Zelgadiss exclaimed.

The chimera man just didn't figure out what Gourry really meant to say.

* * *

**A**s Lina had anticipated, that inn was clean and had normal guests, but the food wasn't anything great, which explained the low cost; therefore they went to meal in some street food stores, where they ate fish and chips, and some vegetables in vinegar served over waxed papers that they ate using their hands only. Everybody but Xelloss, who in spite Martina's annoyance, had left her behind without saying a word and even less, enough money to pay her own meal. Xoana's princess was really infuriated by that. Miwan, however, found very exciting to eat in the middle of the streets with such idleness and using only her hands.

"Woaah! This is amazing! A real freedom!" Miwan exclaimed, leaving her waxed paper over her knees. Then, she turned towards Amelia, "Princess Amelia, don't you think is great to be able to do this kind of things? We, royalties, cannot do things like this."

Amelia seemed a little awkward by Miwan' sudden bubbly of happiness, "Yeah, well… I've done this many times, and it's one of the good things to travel like this."

"Oh! I'm sure that's why you find traveling so exciting!" Miwan smiled to her."We cannot do this kind of things in the palace."

"I like to travel a lot… but I rather like to pass unnoticed. So please, call me only Amelia."

Miwan blinked a couple of times till she realized what Amelia wanted to say. Then, she smiled her back with what seemed her usual charming self.

"Ok! I'll address to you as 'only Amelia', deal?"

"Deal."

Zelgadiss watched the scene sitting on the stone bench near the street store as he ate some vinegar gherkins. When she heard Miwan talking like that, he realized how… clueless Miwan was about many things, which included many things like that. It made sense because the Femille's princess had spent all her life in a little kingdom in the middle of the mountains, so even commercial towns as regular as that one, were surprising for her. Just being able to take your lunch so casually in the middle of a street. In spite Zelgadiss found Miwan really charming, her clueless was even… annoying.

At least Amelia had known better in their first encounter, and now, even she seemed to be awkward by Miwan's lousy speeches.

But even so, Zelgadiss forced himself to value the moment. When he could lunch like that with a girl like Miwan next to him since he became a chimera? It never had happened.

* * *

**T**he room was big, but not as it should be because it kept inside four beds, in fact, the beds themselves were small, at least under Miwan's valued, besides, they lacked of canopy and the only furniture available (plus the beds) were four stools placed next to every bed and four oil lamps hanging from the walls; it was quite poor but Lina and Amelia seemed okay with it. Miwan come from a royal palace after all, and commoners' possessions weren't anything like hers back to Femille's royal palace, even if her kingdom was quite small. Even so, Miwan was surprised at how easily Amelia accepted the lack of commodities; Martina, however, seemed to be awkward about those things, although she accepted them as they come.

Lina had tromped in the room first, as usual, casting a "_Lighting_" spell to illuminate the room and finally, she choose the bed nearest to the window at the left wall; Martina did the same but in the opposite wall; Miwan just choice the one next to Martina's; and Amelia got the last one. The result was some bizarre "princess-with-princess" distribution, although Amelia always was the last in choosing, Miwan noticed. The Seyruun's princess was polite all the time and Lina always demanded things.

The redhead just left her things drop over the bed she had choose, scattering all them around her place, which was the usual in her. Amelia, however, pulled off her cloak, belt and boots and left them perfectly pledge over the stool next to her bed, and then she started to put on her nightdress, ready to spend the night. Martina, however, had left her things unstably over her own stool, and then she scolded to Lina.

"Oh, my… Why do you always leave all your things around like that, Lina?" She complained. "Tomorrow you'll make a scene because you cannot find your things, and you'll order us to look for them! I am tired of that!"

"Martina, I do things as I want… And you cannot give me lectures because you aren't my mom."

Amelia listened them with a déjà-vu feeling. She also had suffered because of Lina's rude manners when they shared a room; however, now it was Martina who complained and Amelia just let it go.

"…If my dear Xelloss would want to share the same room with me, then this wouldn't happen!" the curly haired princess with a dreamy look in her sparkling eyes.

"The heck, Martina!" Lina spat back, "Xelloss won't enter in this room just because you want him to sleep with you!" Even the redhead's checks were lightly red.

"Of course not! I meant a room for us both, only!" Martina rushed to clarify, being offended by Lina's comment.

Then, Miwan' soft voice just got all their attention.

"Eeer… Why do you want to share your room with the priest Xelloss, Princess Martina? Is that a custom here, too?"

Everybody shut up and looked at Miwan with a confuse look. The curly haired princess just blinked a couple of times, and then she started to giggle.

"I don't want to share my room with him, only. I also want to share my bed with him!" at this point, Martina closed her eyes and kept giggling in flirty tone with her fist clenched under her chin.

Amelia and Lina blushed; none of them dared to think in such possibility. Miwan, however, didn't get the sense.

"But… why? I just don't find why is so nice to be around men… all day."

Now, Martina was truly surprised, "And why not? All women want to spend their lives with a man… That's why you're with Zelgadiss, aren't you?"

Amelia jumped in her place and she felt again the pain inside her chest; Martina had said that with such naturally that it seemed to be the truth and she couldn't stop to turn her head towards Miwan, waiting to see her reaction.

"With… Zelgadiss?" she mused with a puzzle expression on her golden eyes. "He's the one that remains with me all the time, but sometimes it's too much." At this point, Miwan noticed the inquiring looks that everybody had on her, so she tried to explain herself. "Don't take me wrong. Zelgadiss is a wonderful person; he has changed my life, he's the reason I'm traveling with all you now. And he also is teaching me many things I didn't even know that existed." Miwan made a pause, "But being all day with a man is weird for me."

Lina began to laugh, "Zel is nice, she says… Certainly, Miwan you haven't realized how is Zel really!"

Miwan ignored Lina's comment; she had learned that Lina liked to tease and catching attention, so she just hadn't reasons to listen to her opinions as the only truth.

"That is…" Martina began, "Why do you say that being with men is weird?" An odd idea just had formed inside Martina's mind.

"I've been raised in an only-women kingdom, you know." Miwan answered, still absent of Martina's thoughts or even the possible implications of her words. "He's very nice with me… in fact, all them seem to be with all you. But I just am not used to be so closer of a man, although he seems to be very fond of me, but I guess perhaps it's the usual."

There was an utter silence; even Lina's laughs were silenced. Clearly Miwan didn't understand why Zelgadiss spent all the time with her. Amelia just felt confused, but also relieved; Miwan was right, she had been raised in a kingdom forbidden for men, where they were executed if they surpassed the frontiers. Probably Miwan had been raised in the belief of not accepting men, except perhaps, just for giving born to the next Femille's queen; so probably she just felt uneasy around Zelgadiss and the rest of the men in the group.

Amelia felt a hint of relief; she had thought that Miwan also liked Zelgadiss, but now it could be different.

"Then… why are you with Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia asked attempt.

Miwan blinked, "Being with him? ...He's my friend and the person that has made possible the change in my life. But I rather like to be with women more often." Her face turned a little pensive, "Perhaps I should tell him that, but I just… well--- I just don't know what to do because sometimes I feel awkward next to him."

"Oh, my! Oh, my!" Martina exclaimed, "Then, our chimera boy is in love with you but you aren't in love with him."

"In love what? I thought it was the norm…" Miwan answered even more confused. "I've seen Gourry is with Lina, Xelloss is with Princess Martina… and Zelgadiss is with me. Princess Amelia has nobody because we're four women and three men."

Putting aside the fact that Lina was red as a tomato right then and Martina was in joy because the mention of her relationship with Xelloss, Miwan's plain explication was just too simple. Certainly she just didn't know why Zelgadiss wanted to be with her, and had assumed that Amelia was alone because there weren't more men in the group.

But there was something else: even if Miwan had a high concept about Zelgadiss, she just didn't feel easy around him. Amelia surprised him thinking that it made sense because the chimera man was everything but nastiness at the first sigh, but later she –and she guessed more people- learned better around him. Perhaps Miwan just didn't like Zelgadiss because the same reasons that everybody had at first, even if he showed her his best side.

Therefore, it was a matter of time before Miwan changed her opinion, even if she wasn't easy around men… yet.

It was kind of ironic that the woman that Zelgadiss had choice to fall for was, in fact, so clueless about men. Perhaps that was part of the reason the chimera man had chosen her (besides the obvious physical attraction); Miwan just couldn't judge him in the same way as the rest.

"Man, that's nuts" Lina said under her breath, covering her eyes with the hand.

"I cannot believe it…" Martina mused, "She just doesn't understand why Zelgadiss is with her." Xoana's princess was just too lousy for not keeping her mouth shut.

Miwan was absent, of course. For her, the customs outside her kingdom were something alien to her, so she just didn't catch why all those young women were so surprised by her opinion; obviously they had assumed something different. The princess remained in silence for a moment, immerse in her thoughts, till finally she looked at them and spoke again.

"I… I don't want to do the same as Princess Martina is with the priest Xelloss." Miwan said just for making it clear, "To tell the truth, even if Zelgadiss had a high concept of me, I find that... that I don't know many things about him. I don't understand why he covers himself with that hood when we're around more people, for example."

"Didn't he explain you why he's a chimera?" Amelia asked her with a mix of curiosity and hope.

Miwan nodded, "My mother explained to me that some kingdoms and powerful characters have armies of enchanted men called chimeras. And he told me he was enchanted by a famous sorcerer and he wants to be a normal man again. But that's all what he told me." She looked at Amelia with questioning eyes, "Why? Do you know anything else?"

"Eeeer… Well, that's what we know, too." Amelia answered.

"To be honest, even if he's all kindness with me… I find he doesn't talk about himself, even if he talks a lot with me."

Amelia was just amazed. In the same spam of time that followed their first meeting, Amelia had found more things about Zelgadiss than what Miwan seemed to know. The Seyruun's princess knew many things about the chimera man: how he had be turned into a chimera, what his hopes and his wishes were, his magic skills, what he liked to eat or to drink, and basically many little things about him. But Miwan only knew what she had seen since she started to travel with them. Certainly Zelgadiss hadn't told her many details about his persona to her.

The Seyruun's princess felt somehow, relieved, but also disappointed. Certainly Zelgadiss didn't trust too much in Miwan if he just didn't have her in enough confidence to be sincere with her. Still, if it was like that, why did Zelgadiss want to be with a girl whom he didn't trust enough?

Amelia felt disappointed and even betrayed and for a moment, she wished to be in a room alone, just for crying in peace; not being able to do something else, she just said.

"Lina… I'm going to open the window a little. I think this room needs some air fresh."

"Hm, ok!"

And saying that, she cracked the shutter and her head popped out, feeling the night air on her hot eyes.

Martina watched her with some sad expression on her face as Lina just throw her front band on the stool and looked for her hairbrush.

* * *

**O**nce Zelgadiss had casted the "_Lighting_" spell to illuminate their room, Gourry just dropped his shoulder pads on the ground and kicked them under his bed; later, he did the same with the rest of his armor and left his sword in the room's corner, next to the window. Perhaps the blonde swordsman wasn't as disorganized as Lina was, but certainly he didn't pay too much attention to his things.

Zelgadiss knew that and, over the time, he had become use to Gourry's careless manners, even being both swordsmen, Zelgadiss rather liked with his own blade next to the head bed, always ready for any danger, but not Gourry, who just left his amazing weapon somewhere around, kicked his armor, put some pajamas on and finally, ended up landing on the bed for falling asleep without any concern. From Zelgadiss' point of view, Gourry's negligent behavior was something totally unusual in a mercenary, but the chimera had learned long ago that the blond guy had a very high confidence in his own skills, even if he wasn't aware of those.

Therefore, he just let it go, as usual, and proceeded to untied his cloak after leaving his sword in the usual place; he was about to throw his cape over the bed when Gourry interrupted him.

"Hey, Zelgadiss!" the blonde exclaimed.

"Hmmm?"

"You already heard Lina. Tomorrow she wants to go to the local stores in order to make some money" Gourry started to explain, "Are you planning go with her or something, too?"

The chimera man turned towards Gourry and looked at him a little surprised.

"Go to shopping with Lina?" he exclaimed, sounding half amazed, half puzzled by Gourry' suggestion.

"Well, she wants to trade some magical objects, you know." Gourry explained waving a hand. "I don't understand about those things, but I had thought perhaps you also were interested in that stuff."

Zelgadiss had to admit Gourry was right. When he traveled alone, sometimes making business with magical objects provided him some good money. But he also knew too well how good Lina money making was, thus his presence wasn't needed.

"No. I don't think I'm going to make business with Lina. She's just good enough at that."

"I didn't plan to do it, either." Gourry answered, "Lina doesn't want me to go with her to magical shops because she says I'm too curious and I start to play idly with those expensive objects… and she just doesn't want to pay for them again. So I rather let her go alone in those places."

Zelgadiss almost clutched at Gourry's words. It was a funny picture to see Lina being angry because she had to pay her bodyguard's havocs. In fact, it was a nice change.

"Well, then what you wanted to do?" The chimera asked, knowing that probably Gourry had a plan.

"I was thinking in some light training with swords" Gourry smiled, "You know, we have to keep ourselves in shape, and it had been a while since we trained last time."

"Hmmm, that's truth. But I hadn't thought of sword straining. I doubt this city's laws allow it, and I don't want to get into trouble."

Gourry scratched his head, "Well, that's true. They could think we're fighting in a duel or something… Perhaps we should train outside the city's walls." Then, he turned towards Zelgadiss, "Or were you planning to train in magic with Amelia?"

"Magic training with…Amelia?" Zelgadiss asked, surprised.

Gourry nodded. "You both have been training together a lot lately. I've seen she's teaching priests' magic… Well, you know, I mean that kind of magic that priests use to heal people and repairing things."

The easy terms that Gourry used to definite things he didn't know were almost funny to Zelgadiss' eyes. However, he was right; since they met again on Xoana almost six months ago, the chimera man had learned a lot about White Magic. The Rezo's berserker had been always totally clueless about White Magic, in part because Rezo himself never wanted to teach those things to his pawn, just in order to keep him in line; in part because he never could convince anybody to teach such things gratis. Meeting Amelia had been a nice coincidence, because when he tried to ask her for learning "Recovery" (the most extended White Magic spell, even among not magic practices), she was willing to do it and she taught him the spell in record time. And not only that, Amelia also proved to be a good teacher and had started to teach thing more White Magic spells, such as "_Sleepin_g", or even "_Megiddo Flar_e", the powerful spell he had used to save Miwan. It was surprising he could have learned such magic spells from her.

Thinking on that, a light smile grown on the corner of his stone lips; but the fact was different.

"No. I hadn't thought in training more magic with Amelia. She hasn't suggested me that, either. I guess tomorrow, she will go with Lina."

"I dunno" Gourry answered. "Then, shall we stay in the tavern tomorrow?"

"I don't think so. Perhaps I'll go with Miwan to visit the city. Surely she's interested in visiting it."

The surprise face that merged on Gourry's face was very obvious.

"Visiting the city with Miwan?" he exclaimed.

Zelgadiss nodded, "She never has been outside of her country, and I don't think she can be alone in a city like this. I have to keep an eye on her."

Gourry blinked; for him, Zelgadiss' behavior was totally unusual.

"Whoa, Zel!" the blonde swordsman exclaimed, "You're very protective towards her!" then, he smiled, "But I don't think she needs help. Lina, Amelia and Martina will be with her, too."

"What? Didn't you just tell me that Lina would go to trade with magical items?"

"Yeah, but the rest of the girls will go too. Martina will do what Xelloss indicates her and surely he will follow Lina, as usual; Amelia… well, since she isn't going to train with you or something, she will go with Lina for sure. And Miwan… I think she would also go. Girls like to be together at times, you know."

Zelgadiss realized that Gourry was pretending to tell him something between lines, something that wasn't related with the fact that Gourry would like to train their swordsmanship together, or just spend the day jacking in the tavern. The Elmekian blonde guy wasn't as subtle as that, so he obviously wanted to point something else that he didn't dare to say openly.

"Are you saying… that Miwan wants to spend the day with the girls instead with me?" The chimera pointed, his eyes glaring.

Gourry waved his long blonde mane with a hand, in order to fit his pajama on his frame; the swordsman wasn't really proud of his luscious mane, so the gesture seemed to be theatric rather than a real need.

"Yeah, well… You know the girls; they need some space for themselves and you spend all the time with her. Even sometimes I find Amelia doesn't want to talk with you because of it."

"So you think I'm forcing Miwan to spend time with me?" Zelgadiss asked, his voice also tense, "And what the heck is this of Amelia refusing to talk with me?"

Gourry looked at the chimera man, his face serious yet peaceful.

"Before Miwan come with us, Amelia talked a lot with you… but now, she seems to have posted some space between you both. I find it strange that she didn't come to you for magic training and she walks alone half of the way when we're traveling."

"That's Amelia's problem. If she doesn't want to train magic anymore with me or just talk to me, it's her problem. I didn't force her to do it."

"And Miwan? I find you also…"

"I'm forcing her to stay with me all the time? Is that what you mean?" Zelgadiss was becoming angry.

"Yup! Since you met her, you spend all of your time with her… It's obvious you like her a lot." Gourry answered sounding casual. "However, you also have to think that Amelia isn't taking it easily and she's being quite upset these days. And since Miwan has spent all her life around women, she just needs to be with the girls more often. I find she doesn't feel easy around us as much."

After hearing that, the chimera's man face crossed different emotional states: first surprise, later indignation, and finally, angriness. The implication of Gourry's words was very clear: the blonde swordsman was saying that his interest in Miwan was so compulsive that he was becoming annoying for Amelia, and creepy for Miwan herself.

Zelgadiss greet his fans and his eyes turned into something more demonic; it was the usual look he had when the chimera man become furious, and usually it was enough to make people to think better about pissing him off. But Gourry knew Zelgadiss wouldn't cause him real damage.

"Listen, Gourry!" the chimera man began to say, his voice tilted of angriness. "This is the very first time a woman dares to be honest with me, not judging me, not depicting me… and not fearing me since I became a chimera. And this is the first time I have the chance to get closer to a woman I really like because I have a hidden purpose or just because I had been ordered to kill her!"

Gourry looked at Zelgadiss with sadness; he knew how many horrible things the chimera man had been forced to do, and now the result was obvious. However, the blonde swordsman knew the chimera was just wrong in his judgment, even if Zelgadiss had reasons to talk like that.

"Let me be happy with somebody that's what I always wanted!" Zelgadiss finished with a bark.

Gourry sighed, the sadness still on his blue eyes. "Ok, Zel. Go on… But I still thinking you're wrong. Perhaps you need some time to realize that."

"Cht! You aren't able to understand it!"

Zelgadiss step back, waved his cloak over his shoulders again, and headed towards the window, and then he opened the shutter and turned back towards Gourry before casting "_Levitation_" in order to fly out.

"I am tired of Lina's constants comments. And I don't want to be told by somebody that isn't able to solve his own love problems." Zelgadiss said with poisoned voice, "Go to sleep by yourself. I'm going out."

"Okay. Good night, Zelgadiss." Gourry said with a sigh; he knew arguing further more with the chimera man was pointless.

But Zelgadiss didn't answer; he just climbed the window's frame and flew away. Gourry didn't close the window because he hoped Zelgadiss would come back at the room when he calmed down enough.

The chimera man was always that zealous and Gourry always had been very patient. He was with Lina, after all.

---Too bad he left the "_Lighting_" spell active inside the room.

* * *

**A**t the roofs level, things were different. Zelgadiss could watch the town under different perspective; certainly many roofs and buildings were being repaired, getting ready for the next cold winter, and certainly thanks to his chimerical eyes, he could catch glimpse of things that used to pass unnoticed to common people, such like cats running around the tiles, the silent fly of the barn owls over the towers and the streets, the local sorceries leaving "_Lighting_" spells on the main streets as night illumination, even two men sneaking on the dormer window of certain closer building with obvious intentions.

Then, he saw certain familiar figure poking out through the window of another inn's room from a lower story. It was Amelia.

For a brief second, Zelgadiss felt the impulse of saying something to her; he had become used to her bubbly presence around him and it had caused a mark in their relationship. But soon he just smashed the idea; the recent arguing with Gourry about perhaps he was being mean to her because his new relationship with Miwan. He was out there because he seek for peace, so he just wasn't going to have a light chat with Amelia after a fight.

Besides, Amelia was totally oblivious about his presence, and even in a certain way, moody.

His chimerical eyes caught the unusual shine of her eyes; at first, he thought it was because she had seen the two thieves on the near roof sneaking in that house, so probably she was becoming infuriated by that, although Zelgadiss didn't know how much Amelia was willed to make heroic deeds at midnight when everybody was asleep. Eventually she just didn't do anything, just stayed there, her eyes still shining. Somehow, she seemed to be really upset.

But, why? Perhaps Lina had hit her or something.

In that moment, his sharp ears caught how Lina said something to her and Amelia just disappeared from the window, closing the shutter after her.

Amelia didn't come back.

* * *

**O**n the next morning, Lina's yells about where the heck were her things echoed all throughout the corridor where the girls' room was placed; as Martina had predicted, the redhead just couldn't find her things and now she was ordering to the other girls to look for them. Martina was angry, of course, and Amelia also pointed to her what was obvious, yet she also searched for Lina's things. Miwan also helped, but she found amazing that dark sorceress could order three princesses to look for her things. Certainly it wasn't the kind of things that she was used to.

After that, the girls group went to meet the boys at the inn's hall, where other costumers, mostly merchants and traders, also were gathering to start their business days. Lina never had really been an early-riser, so the other girls had to wait for her, and later seeking for their things; as a result, Gourry was already waiting for them in the hall.

"Hiya, Gourry!" Lina granted him waving a hand. "Ready for a breakfast match?"

"Good morning, Mr. Gourry." Amelia added, and then, she looked around, "Where is Mr. Zelgadiss? I cannot see him."

"Hi all you, girls!" The blonde swordsman answered, "I dunno. When I woke, he wasn't in the room… I guess he went out early."

"I see. It's the usual 'Zelgish' things he does." Lina said in unworried tone.

Amelia, however, felt a little worried, as what normally happened when the chimera man wasn't around. Of course, she knew he could take care of himself, but the fact of him abandoning the group made her to be upset, even if she was already upset by his choices.

"Oh, here he comes!" Miwan exclaimed, pointing at the main gate.

The fact was on the previous night, Gourry had slept with the window open, waiting for his return, which caused him to use a blanket in the middle of the hot summer. But the chimera man didn't come to sleep, or at least, Gourry didn't see his bed unwrapped and the "_Lighting_" spell was nulled in the early morning, he figured out that the chimera man had avoided him as much as possible. The blonde swordsman just sighed; he couldn't push the issue any further.

Zelgadiss was as usual; his face serious and his lack of sleep wasn't anything obvious because his chimerical condition allowed him to stay awake for longer than an average human, so he lacked black bags under his eyes. Besides that, Gourry didn't say a word about their argument the previous night.

"Hi, Zel!" Lina waved at him, "Did you have breakfast already?"

"I just took something, yes." He answered in cold tone, without greeting anybody.

"Good morning, Mr. Zelgadiss." Amelia said to him, her voice trying to sound chirping, "Where have you been?"

Zelgadiss turned towards Amelia, remembering what Gourry had told him the previous night to him about Amelia putting distance between them because of Miwan and how upset she seemed to be when he saw her on the previous night. However, he found Amelia's question and behavior fit the normal her.

"I've been checking clues about my cure, but this city isn't very interested in magic. It only has the typical magic stores and the Cephied's temple, so I haven't found any clues."

Ok, such answer also fit the usual in Zelgadiss.

"Typical magic stores?" Lina buffed, "I was expecting to make some good money."

"I'm sure you can do that, Lina." Zelgadiss answered, his voice sounding a little mocking.

"Of course I can! It's one of the many skills that the fabulous Lina Inverse has."

"Then, you won't come with us, Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia asked, figuring out that Zelgadiss didn't plan to go to those stores.

"I can wait you till you take your breakfast, but I won't go to the stores. That's Lina's business."

"Hmm, as usual" Martina complained, "That rude redhead sorceress only cares about money."

"Then, perhaps we could…" Amelia started to say, but Zelgadiss cut her off before she could keep talking.

"What do you plan to do, Miwan?"

"Me? Oh! I wanted to go with the sorceress Lina to those shops." Miwan answered, glancing briefly to Amelia. "It sounds interesting and I want to learn more about those things."

Amelia blinked and later, she sighed. Zelgadiss didn't even give her the chance to talk; he just rushed to ask Miwan what she wanted to do. Again, it was obvious that in one or other way, the chimera man had replaced her by the other princess in the scheme of their relationship. Amelia felt infuriated and despised, she wished to yell at him some speeches about such injustice, or perhaps even punching him… something she had never done previously; but she quickly rejected the thought. Amelia just couldn't order him to stay at her side or just be worried about her.

Zelgadiss, on the other hand, sighed. He had hoped Miwan would want to visit the city with him, and basically, staying with him; but in the end, Gourry was right. The Femille's princess wanted to do so-called interesting things going with Lina to trade magical items.

"Since nobody asks me…" Martina began to say, "I'll go where my dear Xelloss asks me as soon as he comes here to meet me."

"We know that already, Martina." Lina answered.

"Well, in any case, I think we all can go together to trade magical items" Amelia concluded, assuming that Zelgadiss wasn't about to take another magical lesson from her. Then, she turned towards Lina, "Perhaps you should allow Gourry to come with us, Lina. It isn't that bad."

For Amelia, seeing that Lina and Gourry spent time together, was something that made her happy in spite of the odds. Besides, it was an injustice that Gourry stayed along in the inn, waiting for them.

"Hmmm… Okaaaaay" Lina answered, sounding tired, "But you say so because you haven't to pay for his havocs." Amelia smiled at her, and Lina added waving her hands: "In the end, this has turned into a tourist visit."

--In the end, that day the group spent all the day together.

* * *

**A**melia knew the reasons because she was angry, or rather, annoyed. Basically it was because she felt rejected; she felt that even if Zelgadiss hadn't done anything bad to her, he was openly ignoring her in favor of Miwan, and as a result, the silent support she had become use to have at her side, just had disappeared. And not only that; Amelia had been learning a lot of Astral Magic thanks to the chimera man, who explained many things about the matter in the same way that she did about White Magic; in fact, the Seyruun's Princess had started to making up a new combat spell based on Zelgadiss' "_Astral Vine_" one… but now, she almost gave it up because she just didn't find the chance to learn more about it through Zelgadiss, and Lina –of course- wasn't the best person to ask for magic lessons. And along with that reason, there were many others, such like his company on their long travels, the way they fight together, sharing their meals, and other many little tips.

Amelia was angry basically because of that…

But it was not only that.

The Seyruun's princess felt an odd pain inside her throat every time she saw how Zelgadiss talked with Miwan, or just wanted to spend time with her. It was an odd pain, a mix of sadness with rejection and angriness; something that she barely remembered to have felt some time in the past. Why she was so angry? ...No, it wasn't angry feelings, it was something different.

Amelia realized that after watching Zelgadiss with Miwan together all the day in that merchant's town. She was jealous.

The thought made Amelia to be surprised at herself.

Jealous? Her? How could she be?

Amelia never had wished to control other people, to take over power or just their life's happiness… Well, she always wanted to travel around the world, just like her father had done for years before she was born. In fact, her parents met in one of those travels, and sometimes Amelia had thought perhaps she could find her future love-interest in one of those rather than among other noblemen or royalties.

But one thing was to wish for something, and it's different to hate somebody because you feel that person is taking away something that you believe belongs to you.

And Amelia didn't hate Miwan, she just couldn't hate her. Miwan herself hadn't done anything bad to them, she even had been helpful. Amelia just couldn't hate that girl just because the chimera man preferred Miwan over her. What she hated was Zelgadiss' attitude, who overviewed everything she said or thought, or even asked, just because he wanted to stay with Miwan.

The irony of this was Zelgadiss didn't really trust the Femille's princess, which was obvious after Miwan admitted she didn't know a great deal of him.

Amelia clutched her fist.

How …how could he be so terribly selfish? And how could be he so mean to her? Back at their first meeting, Amelia had thought he was creepy, mean, shellfish and even cruel; she just dislike him. But slowly, she had become fond of him. She had seen things in him that made her to change her mind. Perhaps he wasn't that "Evil Swordsman" that peasants called him, or "Rezo's berserker" as his former fellows also called him. Amelia had started to think that she was discovering the real person that lay under that living armor that was his body.

He was mean and selfish. He just wanted to be with Miwan because the girl was a cutie; he just had an obvious physical attraction to her.

No …it wasn't only that.

Every time that Amelia looked at him, how happy he seemed to be next to Miwan, how often he smiled, she realized that her thoughts were just wrong. She was just disappointed because he had chosen Miwan over her. And she was jealous of that because, somehow, sometime, Amelia had decided to develop feelings for him. Her heart had decided that, and now, she was paying the disillusionment of her wrong choice.

Miwan should have something that she hadn't, something she just couldn't understand, and Zelgadiss had seen that in the Femille's princess. Hers was just a simple one-side love that she just had realized that she felt.

And Amelia couldn't be so selfish to order him to love her in return. If she truly was her best friend, she had to wish him for the best. In spite it was going to be really painful for her.

More friends and a new love interest will come to her in the future, right? And for the next time, she just will know better.

* * *

**O**nce the group had abandoned the merchants' town; the group just kept travelling towards the north. All together, just like the time they left Femille.

Xelloss had convinced Lina to head towards a certain city called Rikkido, and even if Zelgadiss hated that mocking priest, he had to admit the guy knew "something" because he always headed them off towards certain places and helped them in some twisted way. Xelloss was useful and, as just Lina had pointed when Miwan joined the group, it was a good reason to allow him to be around them, in spite that he disliked Xelloss.

But he also had good reasons to be there. Miwan's presence next to him was refreshing and had made his travels less lonely. That shy girl was everything he always liked in a woman: she was charming, natural, honest, and sweet, and also had a very nice curved body shape; and overall, she accepted him without questioning him. Lina and Amelia also were nice to him, he had to admit, but Zelgadiss found Lina's bossy manners were really annoying, and he just didn't like to spend his life traveling around the world just because she wanted to stuff her stomach with so-called yummy food as Lina wanted. And Amelia…

Amelia was walking alone again. Perhaps Gourry was right and she was putting distance between them. Somehow, she was rejecting him, too, which was something surprising to him because the chimera man always had thought Amelia seemed to love everybody without questioning. Perhaps she was angry with him for some reason, or perhaps she just didn't want to interfere between Miwan and him…. And knowing Amelia, if she was truly angry with him, she would have given him a long Justice Speech as lecture, but she hadn't done it. Thus the only explication was she just wanted to let him go with Miwan. Lina had been teasing him about the matter, but Amelia never did (she wasn't like that after all), but surely she also knew he liked Miwan and had allowed him to go ahead with it. Amelia was generous and she would do that.

However, the chimera man found perhaps he should do something about his wished relationship with Miwan. Perhaps Gourry also was right when he told him that he was pressing her to stay with him… But Zelgadiss had always been a passionate man, and right now, the only thing he wanted was to demonstrate Miwan how much interested he was in her.

With that scenario, the group arrived to a certain forest of beech trees, mixed with elder bushes and ash trees, where they decided to cover themselves in order to spend the night. Sometimes they used abandoned shepherds cabins in the grasslands or forests lines, but in that direction, they didn't found any at the evening, so they had to sleep out in the open.

The group organized the tasks in the usual routine in those cases; gathering firewood and stones for making a fire, putting the camp tents around the fire and grilled some meat and vegetables for their supper, and finally, collecting some forest fruit to eat with that if a such thing was possible. Closer springs and streams provided the group with enough water, although that night Gourry had a craving for bear's meat.

Since the group's number had grown up a lot in the later weeks, they had bought a new tent in the merchants' town with the money that Lina had managed to get. Basically, now they had three tents: one for the guys, another for Lina and Amelia, and finally another for Martina and Miwan. Xelloss, however, also disappeared in the night and come back on the next morning, although sometimes they knew he spent the night in front of the fire or watching them from a high branch tree, although they weren't sure if he truly could slept like that.

…Perhaps he just wanted to avoid Martina's furious demands to sleep with her.

Watching them, Zelgadiss had concluded he just couldn't act that ridiculous with Miwan. As he had decided, perhaps he should be clear with her once and for all… but privately, without making scenes in front of everybody.

So once he finished taking his random supper, he just asked Miwan to accompany him to talk.

* * *

**T**he fire cracked in front of her eyes, providing her face of the needed heat to spend the night. Her eyes, usually bright and blue, were now darkened and unusually hot because of the tears cornered in them. Amelia was trying her best not to cry, even if her thoughts were totally gloomy.

It was clear. He had made his choice and she couldn't do anything against it. Amelia just couldn't order, force a person to do something against his will when it was his personal life; sure, she gave orders back in Seyruun… But doing it because she had a rank was different from doing it because she just wasn't happy with her friends' decisions. Perhaps in other royal courts, the nobility could arrange marriages and courting somebody under the pressure of the obedience; perhaps those fake couples were only because one of the parts pay homage to their king. But not in Seyruun and not her. Amelia had been born because of the love of her father for a commoner woman, not a noble; she just wasn't going to do something against the belief of every person having the right to choose the person who they want to spend their life together.

On the other hand, Amelia was his friend. It would be very selfish to command him to love her after she realized her own feelings. It was just capricious. Mentally, Amelia kicked her own heart for not warning her about the obvious till it was too late, yet it didn't matter now. She knew how important it was for Zelgadiss being loved in some degree; his friends could be counted with the hands' fingers, and right now, two of them were already dead. If Miwan was able to see themselves as a reliable couple, thus loving him, she just hadn't the right to spoil it.

Being Amelia closest friend, the best option was giving him her benediction, as a friend and as priestess.

The dark haired princess had made up her mind. Her face turned serious and she rose on her knees, shook the sand off her white baggy trousers and asked,

"Lina, do you have any idea where Zelgadiss went?"

The redhead sorceress had her mouth stuffed with a baked sweet potato, something she loved to eat. Besides that, she was poking Gourry's eye with a finger because the blond swordsman had the bad idea of stealing one of her sweet potatoes. Fortunately for him, Lina's attention switched to Amelia when she asked for the chimera.

"I *_fink_* he's *_witf_* Miwan *_behinf theref_*" Lina explained splitting lumps of food from her mouth and making a gesture with her chin.

"Thanks, Lina" Amelia always was polite, after all. Then she turned over her heels and headed towards the elder bushes that Lina had pointed; the redhead just gulped hardly all the cooked potato that stuffed her mouth and added,

"But perhaps he doesn't want to be disturbed, you know. Zel has a sour humor and now he has reasons for not being disturbed" Then, she began to giggle in mocking tone.

Amelia stopped her path and her head dropped, "I know… But I must talk with him."

Once Amelia had disappeared quietly between the bushes, Lina turned towards Gourry in order to keep arguing with him about baked sweet potatoes; however, the redhead sorceress just found a very serious face with sharp blue eyes looking awkwardly to her.

"…What?" she asked, confused.

"Stop that already, Lina" Gourry told her, "Amelia is having a hard time and the last thing she needs is being teased."

"I just…"

"I know what you mean to say, Lina. But poking your noise in other people's affairs isn't good. So stop teasing Zel and Amelia."

"Okay, Okay… Man! You know how to spoil a girls' fun!"

"Let's hope they know what to do, too."

Sometimes, Lina marveled at the clarity of thoughts that Gourry had. That and his sharp intuition was something that she never understood how well it works.

* * *

**Z**elgadiss inclined himself towards Miwan; after the chat they had, he had told her how important it was what he wanted to tell her. Even so, it was a shy moved, yet decided; he had waited too long for this moment, and now it was the perfect chance to do it. Why not now? It had been his wish since he realized how much he liked Miwan; she was the perfect girl that the chimera always wanted to fall for, he had repeated to himself constantly. Miwan, however, seemed to be very unsure about what to do or to say, mostly when she noticed that the chimera man was raising a hand, as he was trying to catch her by her nap or something. What was that important thing he was going to tell her?

But the hand stopped in midair. Zelgadiss sharp ears caught a sound and he turned his chimerical eyed towards the intromission source. Even under those circumstances, he always was on guard.

It was Amelia. The short haired princess merged from the elder bushes; her white clothes made her shape very obvious in the night, in spite of her dark hair.

"Amelia!?" Zelgadiss exclaimed, truly surprised by her sudden appearance. The princess also caught a hint of anger in his voice. "What are you…?"

Miwan looked at her, too. She also was surprised, but in a certain sense, grateful with her sudden appearance.

"I… I came here to talk with you, Mr. Zelgadiss" The Seyruun's princess started to say.

"Talk …with me?" The chimera sounded puzzled, although his usual sharp tone remained.

"Yes. I have something to tell you. I think it's the time." Amelia had promised herself to be firm, not being weak, and also being mature enough to deal with her own feelings of rejection and frustration. She fought the urge to sob, and kept talking. "Later weeks… I've learned something about myself that I haven't realized previously. I had thought on it previously, but I always found it wasn't serious… It just couldn't be."

Zelgadiss looked at her with his sharp eyes. Perhaps a normal person couldn't catch the details in the night; he could see Amelia's watery eyes and how she tried to keep her composure, in spite of the firm sound of her voice. It surprised him because he knew Amelia was fighting the urge to cry. And he also knew Amelia didn't cry cheaply. What was all that speech for, then?

"However, it's already too late. You made your choice and I--- I'm not included." Amelia breathed heavily, trying to fill her lungs with the fresh night air. "I can't order you to that, and since I'm your friend, I wish you the best." At this point, her tears began to flow by her cheeks. "I wish you the best with Mss. Miwan, Mr. Zelgadiss…. I know how much you deserve somebody who can love you, finally."

Saying this, she wiped off her eyes and noise, "That's all what I wanted to tell you. My apologizes if I've interrupted you."

The Seyruun's princess curtsy her knees, just like she had been taught to do in the royal court, and turned over her turquoise boots to leave quietly.

Zelgadiss gapped, being unable to say something worthy. He knew what Amelia meant to say wishing him the best, but he just didn't know what to do… what to think about it.

Amelia' sudden confession had made him to lose all his wishes of trying to kiss Miwan.

* * *

*To be continued in the next chapter: _**"The Choice".**_


	5. Chapter5 The Choice

***Disclaimer**: _Slayers belongs to Mr. Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui, Tkyo TV soft, Fumination, etc, etc... I don't own anything of Slayers franchise. This is just a fanwork to be happy reading it._

***Author Notes:** This is a contest story. Basically **"What if Miwan would have been a real woman instead a man**?" from NEXT-Ep 17. This story follows the events of that "drag" episode, but this time Miwan is a real woman, and we know Zelgadiss felt very attracted by her in that episode. Basically this explains what would happen in such case. I talked with my friend **Nadessiko** (another fanfic author), about this, so we got a conclusion. This story is, indeed, the narration of that conclusion. So enjoy it!

Also, special thanks to **Earthstar-chan**, who beta reader this form me, correcting the typos and grammar mistakes. Thank you so much.

On this chapter, things are totally original, but tied to the canon. **Warning**: Zelgadiss is meaner in my stories, closer to the novels version.

**Comments and constructive criticism are most welcome.**

* * *

Chapter5: The choice.

**L**ina had a general idea about what was going on. Of course, she knew Zelgadiss was obviously attracted to Miwan; she had been the first in noticing it, and that had provided her with good laughs in the later weeks. Since the redhead met Zelgadiss more than a year ago, she never had seen him having an obvious crush on a girl; even Lina herself had to admit it was amazing, mostly if she remembered how harsh their first meeting had been, and basically, how he acted every time he crossed paths with somebody. Precisely that irony was what made Lina find so funny teasing him. And certainly it meant Miwan had something that made the chimera act like a mix of an aroused man and a psycho lovebird.

But what was it that he found so interesting in Miwan? Yeah, sure, the girl was cute and had a very nice curved figure –even Lina had to admit it-, and she also was pure feminine charm, and she didn't judge him in their first meeting… All those things were clear reasons to make him interested in her. But besides that, what else? Lina had gotten enough clues about Miwan's lack of… vital experience. And Zelgadiss' experiences were totally the opposite. Surely even he should have notice it because, according to Miwan's words, he didn't trust her enough to tell "the truth" about certain matters, and even Miwan had noticed it. The result was obvious: Zelgadiss had a crush on her, but deep inside, he knew Miwan wasn't a match for him.

The other problem in the equation was Amelia. Since they met, they always had spent a lot of time together, even if their characters and attitudes were totally opposite. But the result was Zelgadiss trusted Amelia: they both fought together, Amelia learned magic and new spells from him, and she also taught him White Magic spells; they were usually walking together, sharing even their meals, and certainly they like to do things together. Lina had the impression that there was something happening between them; sometimes, Amelia had very nice gestures with him, and he was quite peaceful around her… But Lina wasn't totally sure. Perhaps even they were unaware of those things.

The problem was since the day Miwan popped up in their lives and Zelgadiss demanded Miwan should accompany them; Amelia's behavior had changed… at least in several little ways. She didn't spend more time with Zelgadiss anymore, except for common tasks such like taking their lunches or some casual stuff. As a result, Amelia had spent more time with Gourry and her, and even Martina, but even sometimes the Seyruun's princess was alone; of course people need some solitude sometimes, but that was just too much for her. And the worst part was that Amelia's attitude had become quite sour lately; she was more prone to argue with her and the rest of the group in general, and she also was half absent most of the time. Definitively something had happened to Amelia.

-And that night, when Amelia came with her eyes filled with tears, it had been painfully obvious.

"Amelia… what?" Lina began to say, but Gourry stopped her.

"Let her go, Lina. She needs to be alone."

"Let her go?" Lina exclaimed, "She's crying."

"Of course she is… She had been a big deception in something we just cannot get into."

Lina blinked, trying to understand what Gourry meant to say. The redhead had a light suspicion, but it was too amazing for even considering that option.

"Gourry is right, Lina!" Martina encored from the other side of the bonfire. "You cannot poke your nose in people's love troubles."

"What!"

* * *

**Z**elgadiss had let Miwan go after Amelia's declaration. He just didn't know what to do or even what-had-happened-exactly. And that was one of those things that caused him headaches. He never poked his nose in other people's business, only when it was truly needed, because in his mind, only when you have a very close confidence with somebody, when you can trust the other person… you can trust that person won't hurt you in return. And that was something he hardly did.

So the idea of Amelia appearing suddenly to tell him she wished the best for his –trying- relationship with Miwan, as she sobbed because she admitted he had made his choice before she realized something about "herself". That made his head ache, plain and simple. What Amelia had wanted to say was she was leaving because she wanted the best for him with Miwan…. Which obviously implied she was being an annoyance to him (or she thought) so she just let him go ahead without her. But that decision also had been really painful for her because she had been crying as she talked, which meant she was obviously hurt by her own decision.

Zelgadiss understood better than anybody what it meant to cry for a wrong decision, but in this scenario it just didn't make sense and Amelia wasn't a crybaby- at least, not anymore. Amelia's facts of letting him go ahead with his decision of courting Miwan, just fit the kind of things she did. But crying because of that was something different.

The chimera man knew Amelia was his friend, one of the few number of people he truly could trust, even in battle; and he certainly enjoyed her bubby presence around him, although sometimes she did things that infuriated him. He, sometimes, even had wished that Amelia's presence around him would be more… close, even for blushing around her in those circumstances. But now, next to Miwan, it had been an idiotic idea. Even so, Amelia's will to push herself away from him as he tried to court Miwan was just too much. He didn't want that! But apparently Amelia, even Gourry, seemed to think that the Seyruun's princess should disappear from his life, or at least, get away from him a little more. Zelgadiss knew how hard it was making friends in life, how hard it was meeting somebody that he could trust and be trusted by, but apparently everybody thought he was pushing Amelia away from him. Why did Amelia –and everybody else, it seemed- think so? Was Amelia betraying him, too?

No, it didn't make sense.

But even Miwan seemed to think she had done something horrible to her, because as soon as Amelia left, Miwan abandoned him, rushing after Amelia.

"Don't you understand, Zelgadiss?" Miwan said in a higher tone than her usual, "I've done something wrong to Princess Amelia! I don't know what is it, but I've done something to her that has made her that upset!"

And that was all.

There was another possibility, of course. But that other possibility was just… so unusual, so impossible, and so ridiculous, that he barely could take it seriously. And it was that Amelia had feelings for him even from before Miwan's appearance. But it was just too bizarre: a regular woman could be his friend –he had friends, after all- but being interested in him after knowing all those things about him? It was just impossible. After becoming a chimera and serving Rezo for all those long bitter years, all women that crossed his life had feared him, and had reasons to do so. Amelia, Lina and Sylphiel just accepted him as a team mate and friend in different degrees… but definitively not as a love interest.

Besides that and even if it had been truth, why had Amelia acted like that just *after* Miwan's appearance? Could have Amelia shown interest in him without Miwan's presence? It sounded like Amelia was just upset because somebody had taken away her favorite dress or something like that and now she was having a tantrum for that reason.

How could he seriously take Amelia's feelings in such a case?

Oh, joy! Double headache!

This night, he would keep watch all night. Alone. He couldn't sleep with such a big headache.

* * *

**T**he next day, in the very early morning, Amelia woke up next to Miwan and of course, it was a big surprise for her. The previous night, she had been crying till she fell asleep, blaming herself for her lack of decision and own stupidity for not realizing the obvious till it was too late; but certainly she didn't realize that had been Miwan and not Lina who shared the tent with her. Anyway, after crying and getting some sleep, she felt better; Amelia knew that if somebody cries, later they feel more relaxed. But besides that, having Miwan –the object of her recent misfortunes- next to her, had made her too surprised for being even annoyed with her or the events of the previous night.

Amelia moved in her place feeling uneasy about Miwan's presence but trying not to wake her up. Why was the princess there? Or why had Lina changed places with her? She didn't know, but fortunately Miwan was still asleep; it would be better if she just left her and went outside. Amelia was used to getting up early, after all. Then, she just stretched a little and started to put her turquoise boots on; but when she flapped the tent to see outside, she found that Zelgadiss was in front of the extinct bonfire, and her idea of getting out the tent, just flew away. Zelgadiss must have been standing guard all night; he was used to that because his body allowed him to remain awake for longer time, and even so, his chimerical body allowed him to sleep outside without a covering. Even if the rest of the group had some argument with him about that matter –mostly from Gourry- Amelia didn't want to meet him alone after the events of the previous night.

But she didn't want to stay there with Miwan, either. What she could do?

Then, she heard something moving behind her; Miwan was waking already. Oh, wonderful!

"Princess Amelia?" she mused sounding dizzy; Amelia didn't answer. "Did you wake already?"

Even under the current circumstances, Amelia wasn't going to deny a word to that other princess, "Yes, I did. I was about to go out."

That made Miwan raise herself on her elbows.

"Please, don't go yet." The golden eye princess asked, "I wanted to talk with you!"

Miwan had just woken, thus her eyes should be bleary and her voice should sound harsh, but instead of that, it sounded very clear. It stopped Amelia; besides Miwan's demand, of course.

"Talk with… me?" Amelia sounded oddly similar to Zelgadiss from the previous night.

Miwan nodded, "That's why I asked the sorceress Lina to exchange tents last night. I wanted to talk with you alone, and well, I don't want to wait for the rest of us."

"What is…? Why do you want to talk with me?"

Miwan finished raising herself and finally she sat over her sleeping bag and the wool blankets over the ground, her legs crossed. Amelia watched her, her face tightened by the awkward feelings that invaded her.

"I… I wanted to tell you that… I'm sorry what happened yesterday!"

"What…?"

"I don't know what I did! But I know it's my fault! Somehow it's my fault!"

Amelia's mouth dropped. At first she didn't understand what was happening, but eventually it was obvious that Miwan thought she had done her wrong, even if she didn't know what that was.

"Your fault…?"

"Yes. I've done something that has made you terribly upset" Miwan answered totally convinced. "I don't know what it is, but please, forgive me."

"Miss Miwan, you didn't…"

But the golden eyed princess kept talking.

"When I learned you were the younger of the Seyruun's princesses, I was really-really amazed" Miwan started to say, "Princess Martina was a princess and it also surprised me, but not as much as when you confessed your true identity. I couldn't help but admire you… in all senses!" Amelia listened to her in awe. "You're the princess of a kingdom like mine, a kingdom focused on White Magic… and because of that, you were trained to be a priestess. But even if our kingdoms are similar, our royalties are similar… I'm not like you at all. You're a brave woman that wanted to be a priestess and royalty by choosing; you could take your own responsibilities as royalty and as a priestess in spite of imposing. Nothing like me, who refused to do anything like that because I felt enclosed, without having any of life's freedom." Miwan breathed deeply before talking again; she seemed resolute to say everything she believed to Amelia, "And even if you could take your life's direction, your obligations… you have been brave enough to live your own life outside the royalty and the obligations. You left your home in a palace and you travel around the world all by yourself… I -I had to tell all those things to Zelgadiss for getting out Femille's barriers." At this point, Miwan covered her eyes with her hands, "I'm such a coward next to you! I just cannot be like you… So please, forgive me if I've offended you somehow! I don't know how or why, but please…"

Amelia was overwhelmed by Miwan's confession; the Femille's princess had talked so fast, so impatiently to let her know what she thought that Amelia felt totally confused. The dark haired princess just didn't imagine that she had been able to wake such feelings of admiration in Miwan, and she felt a pain of shame when she realized that Lina had felt something similar in their first meeting.

But it also meant that Miwan didn't have a real clue about what had happened to Amelia in the previous night.

"Mss Miwan…" Amelia started to say tentatively, "I… I feel really honored you feel like this about me. Honestly, I had no idea you could admire me so much… But you haven't any fault. You haven't done anything bad to me."

Miwan blinked, confused by Amelia's words, "No? I didn't?... Then, why you were crying last night? I know it has something to do with me."

Amelia sighed and looked at her bare feet and the turquoise boots next to her, thinking on how to put it in terms that Miwan could understand, because it was obvious that the Femille's princess didn't know the real reason since she could understand that concept.

"I… I cried because I realized something I didn't know about me until you joined our group. And when I learned that, it caused me a lot of pain. It isn't your fault, it's just I didn't realize sooner, and now, I'm paying the consequences."

"Then, didn't I do something bad to you?" Miwan asked, puzzled.

"No. I can assure you, you didn't. And I cannot hate you because you're a very honest person." Amelia herself was surprised to say so, but it helped to understand why Zelgadiss was so interested in her.

"Then… what I did when I joined the group? Has something to do with politics in our countries?"

"Oh, no; not at all." Amelia denied with a soft smile. "It's because… because of Zelgadiss and me."

"What…?" That was the last thing Miwan expected. Even if she had been present when Amelia had told all those things the night before, in her concept of the world, Miwan just couldn't understand what happened to Amelia. "You said that you wanted the best for Zelgadiss and me."

"…And I wish for it. He seems to be truly happy with to you."

"Really? Happy with me?" Miwan exclaimed, "The night before, he asked me to go with him outside the camp because he wanted to tell me something important, and I followed him. Then, he started to tell me he was truly happy to meet me and then he tried to do something… then, you appeared and told us all those things. He just didn't do anything after that and I told him I had to apologize to you and tell you how I feel about you."

Amelia felt a new pain in the throat, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to know anything about the reason for that feeling.

"What… what he tried to do?" the dark haired princess asked, feeling uneasy.

"He… he was odd. I've seen how he is with the rest of you, but he acts strange with me. He wanted to touch me or something, but I felt very uneasy because, well… a man never has tried to touch me in that way. Touching my face, I mean."

"I see…" Amelia said, moving away from her view.

"What's all this for, Princess Amelia? I just don't understand… I know my presence causes all your pain, but I don't know why."

"Miwan… I'll tell you in easy terms because it's a custom of the other countries you just don't know." Amelia started to explain, "In short… I wanted what Mr. Zelgadiss was going to do with you on other night, would be done to me instead."

Miwan blinked. Of course the explanation was very easy, even if Miwan herself didn't understand why Amelia wanted that.

"So… you wanted to be in my place? Taken over me?" her voice sounded a little infuriated, as if the idealized version she had about Amelia just flew away.

"Yes. But I realized when you joined us, not before. It was my mistake and now, the only thing I can do is let you both go on."

"So you don't want to take over me?" Miwan insisted.

"No. I am unable to do such a thing." Amelia answered, trying to make clear she wasn't a power thirsty princess or any bizarre idea that Miwan could think. "And I cannot allow Mr. Zelgadiss to leave you and put me in your place."

"But… but…" Miwan mumbled, "What is that thing so important that Zelgadiss has made that makes you so upset? And what does it have to do with me?"

Amelia smiled with a mix of sadness and complacence.

"He wants you two to be a couple"

* * *

**O**ne of the physical advantages Zelgadiss had since he had become a chimera was his sharp senses. He could see in the night almost like a cat, and his hearing was far sharper than a human's, so basically he could catch any sound more easily than an average person. And it had allowed him to listen the conversation between Amelia and Miwan, even if they both tried to talk in low voices. Of course being in the middle of a forest, only surrounded by the chirping birds at the sunrise helped quite a lot.

The night before he said he could stand guard all night because they were near the caravan routes and the place wasn't really secure, but the rest of the group knew this was because something that Amelia had told him and made her totally upset, so they just let him go. As a result, he spent all the night alone, thinking on what had happened.

And the result couldn't be more awkward than those damn headaches.

At a certain point, when the night was past, the moon was covered by some random summer clouds and everything was quiet enough, he allowed himself to sleep a little. Zelgadiss was confident enough in his own skills to allow himself to drop his guard a little, and he truly needed some sleep after the day's events, so he just drop his head and covered himself with his light beige –almost white- cloak, relaxing his body and his mind. The chimera didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he awakened suddenly after having a weird dream where he was with Miwan, but their relationship wasn't pleasing; Miwan didn't want to be with him and she complained about the things he did. Lina and Gourry appeared as some sort of background characters, fighting with Miwan about the food, and finally Amelia appeared in the dream, smiling at him as she usually did, and asking for some magical lesson that he gladly wanted to accomplish. Of course, the dream was formed by random images, mixing scenes about daily events such as Gourry and Lina fighting over the food or Lina trying to boss him around, which made him angry… but where the feelings implied in the dream were the most notorious thing that hinted at his mind. He could feel the rejection from Miwan, the annoyance towards Lina's bossy manners, and overall, how peaceful he felt around Amelia in the dream.

But it just didn't make sense because he liked Miwan, right?

However, he had listened to the conversation between the two girls and had learned many things he just wasn't ready… to learn.

Amelia had feelings for him… or at least, she thought so; and now, she just regretted not saying it to him sooner. That was one of the headaches. On the other hand, Miwan just didn't understand the meaning of "couple", or even what he felt for her, because she had been raised in a society where such thing didn't even exist, and it implied that Miwan probably wasn't about to respond to his feelings, at least in such a short time, which made the whole courting situation even more uneasy, mostly because Miwan herself wasn't very sharp about many life details. And finally, everybody seemed to think that he had pushed Amelia away from him because of his interest in Miwan, when the fact was he never did such a thing… at least, not on purpose. Even if things were clearer now, it didn't help at all.

What else could happen now?

In that precise moment, when the sunlight was already obvious in all of the camp, a black shape jumped on the ground from a tall branch not so far from where he sat, landing softly on the grass. It was Xelloss, and his mere presence made him cringe.

Zelgadiss had avoided the damn priest since he joined the group, and the feeling seemed to be mutual because Xelloss only seemed to have two worries: how to play cool with Martina, and how to convince Lina to do the things he wanted… and he seemed to be good with those. Still, the chimera man wasn't happy at all to have such a bastard next to him, even less in those circumstances.

"Oh, my! Oh, my!" Xelloss exclaimed in his usual chirping way of talking, "It seems you were left alone all night, Mr. Zelgadiss…"

"Go away, priest. That's none of your business." Zelgadiss answered in a sharp tone.

"Of course it isn't" Xelloss answered sounding casual, "But it still is very enjoyable to watch… even if it isn't exactly the kind of things I like."

Zelgadiss' face didn't show the surprise, but he truly was. Xelloss liked to watch the problems that other people had? And even he had his own personal preferences about it? What kind of sadist was he? The chimera man knew that Xelloss liked to tease others till the end, but he had been so frank about it that it almost hurt.

"The previous night has been… very animated, I think" the mocking priest added.

Zelgadiss contained himself; he wanted to kick the priest's butt and punch his face, not necessarily in that order. The last thing that he wanted was that his personal headache would become Xelloss' last entertainment.

"Sir Xelloss!" a voice suddenly exclaimed, "Where have you been? I have been waiting all night for you!"

Obviously it was Martina. And fortunately she had popped up in time.

In spite of it all Zelgadiss wasn't very fond of Martina –in his mind, she was just a crazy princess with delusions of grandeur, although he tolerated her presence-, the fact was Martina could be useful at times.

The Xoana's princess just rushed from the tent she had shared with Lina, and tried to hug Xelloss, as Lina's demands to be quiet sounded behind her.

"Tell me! Are you right? I saw you slept in the top of a tree and jumped from there! Are you hurt?" Martina asked him, trying to study his body shape.

"I'm fine, Martina. Really" Xelloss sounded really awkward, which made Zelgadiss to chuckle.

As Xelloss tried to calm down the passionate gestures from Martina, Zelgadiss had to agree with the curly haired princess. Certainly they all were well trained and had sharp physical reflexes (even Martina had gained some of those after traveling with them), but Zelgadiss had always been on the top of those thanks to his chimerical body. However, Xelloss seemed to be able to do incredible physical stunts. How was that possible?

Well, at least Martina had pulled that annoyance away from him.

Now, he had to make many things clear, but none of them seemed easy to deal with.

* * *

**T**wo days had passed since Zelgadiss had tried to court Miwan and Amelia appeared telling him that she had feelings for him, but she gave them up for his sake with Miwan. One day had passed since he learned how much Miwan admired Amelia, and how confused she was about his behavior towards her. And the same amount of time had passed since none of the implied parties had made any remarkable move.

Lina had shut her mouth; she didn't tease Zelgadiss anymore, although she kept a natural behavior towards Amelia and the rest of the group, which included random arguments with Martina and basically, everybody else, which was one of the group's norms. Gourry also was the usual, fighting with Lina over the food but being protective towards her all the time, and even he kept his relationship with Zelgadiss in the usual terms… but the chimera man knew the blonde Elmekian's face reflected something like "_I told you already_", even if Gourry didn't talk about it openly.

How could he have known that? Besides, was it even serious? In Zelgadiss' logic, Amelia was just having a whim over him. He just couldn't take seriously the feelings she claimed to have when Amelia only showed them after Miwan's appearance and never before.

The problem was Amelia had been his friend all this time, but since she decided to distance herself for his sake with Miwan, he also missed her. And the chimera man was afraid to be acting like a fanciful man, mostly after realizing that Miwan wanted to be like Amelia herself, she wasn't glad to be what she was after meeting Amelia. Did it mean that Miwan wanted to emulate Amelia? And didn't it mean that Amelia was "the original" and Miwan "the copy"?

Damn it! He was struggling too much about things that really shouldn't be like that; he was thinking in those twisted terms that women use to think, instead of the easy terms than men use to think, even if he was a reflexive person. The sole idea of being immersed in such idiotic chaos kept giving him headaches. His life had been turned into a bad soap-opera in just a couple of days. And he wasn't ready for being involved in things like those.

On the other hand, Miwan and Amelia spent more time together. The Femille's admiration towards the Seyruun Princess had become more obvious and certainly Miwan seemed to be more comfortable around Amelia after letting her know what she truly thought. Even if it wasn't exactly the same, Gourry had been right about Miwan wanting to spend more time with other women than only with Zelgadiss, and the chimera just let her go. After the recent events, he just couldn't press her to be with him; plus, since Miwan learned that Zelgadiss wanted them to be a couple, she was obviously… scared, and Zelgadiss had understood that it was natural since Miwan had been raised in a society where such things didn't exist. But it didn't mean Miwan had abandoned him or just ignored him; she still had a high opinion of him, the person that had changed her life.

But after those two days, his wish of having some sort of relationship with the only woman that seemed to have accepted him since their first meeting was just flying away, and Zelgadiss had started to think perhaps he had been wrong. All the deeds were against that possible courting.

Besides that, Amelia had announced she couldn't use her magic powers in the next days because the reasons everybody knew. It was the usual, though, Lina come first, later Amelia, and finally Martina, but since the Xoana's princess didn't have any real power –besides her clumsy Black Spells- it didn't really matter.

* * *

**R**ikkido town was near, according to Xelloss, who always seemed to be right in some twisted way. The priests had informed them about certain important clues about the Claire Bible in that village, and not having any real reason to reject his indications, the group headed towards the town. In half a day they would arrive there since traveling by caravan paths made the trips shorter and easy to walk.

It was already partway through summer and the weather was hot; however, they were in the north, and there the temperature wasn't as high as it was in cities such as Seyruun or even less, the south of Elmekia Empire. Clouds were concentrated by the nearby mountains and that, along with the hot weather, caused the blue sky start to be covered by thick storm clouds.

"We'll have a storm..." Gourry announced. "I hope it doesn't hail."

"Don't worry, Mr. Gourry" Xelloss answered, "Here, the hailstones aren't as big as in your homeland."

Lina had visited Elmekia in the past, before meeting Gourry, and she knew how big were the hailstones back there, as big as a hen's egg; even so, she knew they had to cover themselves.

"Ok… let's find someplace to spend until the storm stops."

Zelgadiss, however, wasn't looking at the sky, but towards the bushes and trees that surrounded the paved road where they were walking. Although Amelia's magical power was down due to her physical condition, she knew the chimera man had noticed something.

"What's wrong, Mr. Zelgadiss?"

The chimera man looked briefly to Amelia, and then he turned towards the redhead sorceress and said in a serious tone, "Lina. We're being watched."

"Yeah, I noticed…" she answered in the same tone.

Martina knew when Lina and Zelgadiss tensed, it was because something odd –or worse- was going on, and thus she rushed to embrace Xelloss as she looked at the surroundings with fear.

"Oigh! What's going on?" the curly haired princess asked.

"They're probably bandits." Xelloss answered with calm, as he wasn't worried at all.

"Bandits?" Miwan inquired, her voice tilting with fear.

Amelia nodded. "Yes. They tend to attack the merchants caravans or rich travelers… at least when they think they can get a big prize. Sometimes, they also attack peasant's villages. They're true villains!"

"But… but that's terrible!" Miwan exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Mss. Miwan. We'll fight them." Amelia answered, "Justice always wins, remember."

"Amelia, you cannot use your powers, so don't put yourself in danger, okay?" Zelgadiss told her in a serious tone, ignoring her ramblings about justice. "Gourry, Lina and I can handle them."

"Sure. Mr. Zelgadiss." Amelia answered.

Miwan felt alien in that scenario. Certainly she knew about the group' skills, but the sole idea of being attacked because a group of low lives would think they were a worthy prey, scared her. Unconsciously, she started to tremble.

"Why would they attack us?" Miwan asked in a low voice, "Do they know who we are, really?"

"No. We always travel incognito. They just think we might have good money or perhaps something else…" Amelia answered to her, trying to calm her down.

But Lina's behavior was anything but calm.

"Okay, bandits! We know you are there! Get out of the forest and face us as brave men!" the redhead shouted, raising her voice quite a lot.

"Can't you do things a different way for a change, Lina?" Zelgadiss asked, annoyed, "Why do you always do this charade?"

"And why not?" Lina answered, looking at him by the corner of the eye, "It's funnier like this."

The redhead ignored any of the chimera's replies and stayed all proud in the middle of the group, her hands placed on her hips and her chin raised, as she wanted to look taller than she was. Amelia, however, was very serious, and her pose tensed, ready for action; Zelgadiss, however, stayed next to Amelia and Miwan, his face also serious and his hand caressing the hilt of his bastard sword, just like Gourry did. The Femille princess was afraid of everything… even Zelgadiss had changed: now, he seemed deadly.

"Can't you hear me!" Lina demanded, "We know you're there, and we know you are more than thirty people! Get out and face us as brave men!"

"Iiiiiih! Why do you always provoke them, Lina!" Martina demanded to know just in the moment that Xelloss disappeared.

At least Miwan wasn't the only scared one; if at least she could scream like Martina did…

Lina smiled when she saw how a big guy with tanned skin and several nasty scars that crossed his face and half of his throat, appeared from the bushes wearing a scimitar gripped in his fist. His body was covered with grease, probably because he was half naked and he needed it to protect himself from the wild nature. Of course, it also caused the guy to have a nasty stink that could be noticed even from the distance.

"Calm down, missy!" the big guy demanded, "We just drop by her' and saw 'u guys walkin' on this path."

The way he talked was as gross as his physical appearance, but Miwan felt an instinctive fear towards that guy with gross manners and she stepped back. In her eyes, that guy was really scary.

"Oh, really?" Lina asked in mocking tone, "And what did you want to do?"

The bandit began to pick his ear, playing an innocent air that Lina knew too well.

"Well… you aren't the usual people that com' across her', ya know." He stopped his whereabouts with his ear and looked at the four girls in the group, "And the path is plenty with pretty gals… And gals need protection."

"Protection? From what?"

"From bad people, ya' know. Those paths are filled with plenty of bandits." The guy answered as he truly believed what he was saying, "Perhaps you chicks want to come with me an' my friends in the forest."

"Why we should do that?" Lina kept her charade, "We're safe here."

The bandit looked at the girls. They were four young sane girls, all them very pretty and without weapons, although one of them seemed to wear a priestess robe or something; the redhead, however, was different: she was totally flat and had a short sword hanging from her slim hips, which meant she was the only one who actually could face them. There also were two men; one of them was tall and had an unusual long blond mane; he wore random armor and had a long sword hanging from his hips, too; it meant that guy was a mercenary, but also very careless because he hadn't pulled out his weapon. The other guy was different because he didn't have any armor and was quite shorter than his travel mate; he was dressed with a long cloak that covered most of his frame, and his head was covered by a hood –probably because of the coming nasty storm- and had a bastard sword also hanging from his hips, although he hadn't unsheathed his own sword, either. Probably the girls had hired those two men for protecting themselves from the dangers of the journey; but since none of them had moved a finger and their looks were totally random, they couldn't be professionals at all.

"And what if I say 'no' to your proposal?" Lina said. "I think we're fine here and not in the forest."

"But a storm is comin'… you should protect yourselves. It would be lame if the pretty chicks get all wet b'cause the storm."

As a premonition, the roar of thunder echoed in the forest, and quickly was followed by more, but not as strong as the first. Certainly the storm was getting closer.

"Oh! We don't care for some rain and thunders" Lina answered, unconcerned.

"But my colleagues want to help you…" the bandit answered as he snapped his fingers.

Of course, it was an order. The bandit chief –if he was that man- had planned to lead the four girls into the forest after convincing them of the convenience of such a thing; and since there were only two armed men, they could defeat them easily; later, they would take advantage of the girls and their possessions. That was plan "A", but since it did not work, there was also a plan "B", which basically consisted of surrounding the girls group at his order, defeating the two men. But yes, none of them had a clue about who they were facing up against.

"Here we go…" Gourry exclaimed, almost sounding joyful at the sight of so many bandits that wanted to play with the group.

"Don't overdo it, Lina" Amelia told her getting ready for a fight.

Miwan, however, was scared to death. It had started to rain and the group was now surrounded by a melee of nasty men, all them with bad and ugly faces, covered with scars and even some amputations; some of them wore rich ornaments made of gold and other precious metals, even big jewels that were supposed to be magical, and all of them were well-built, even if quite a lot had pot-bellies. But overall, all of them had weapons.

And none of the girls in the group (except Martina) was scared.

"Cht! Xelloss disappeared again!" Lina complained, "What's wrong with that guy? He always runs when things become messy."

"We can handle this without help, Lina" Zelgadiss answered, "They aren't a real threat."

Of course, Zelgadiss was right; a herd of bandits wasn't enough for a group of people that had defeated one of the Ruby Eye pieces just a year ago.

But the bandits didn't know this…

* * *

**E**verything was fast, messy and deadly. The path was paved, but the rain was falling hard and the thunder echoed throughout the place, making it hard even staying quiet in the middle of a road covered with messy corpses of the bandits' gang that just had attacked them.

Miwan was horrified. Lina and the rest of the group, except Martina and her, who remained grasping on to each other, watched how Lina, Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadiss faced around thirty filthy men with their weapons. Gourry acted like the mercenary he was, protecting the girls with deadly precision, his long sword swung in all directions, cutting even the clothes that the bandits wore, leaving their naked bodies open to everybody's view; sometimes he seemed to be making fun of the bandits, playing with them as he showed them how high his skills with his blade were that he even cut pieces of their clothes and traced funny marks over them rather than just cut their bodies.

Amelia, however, was totally the opposite. Since she couldn't use her magic, she kept attacking, or rather, protecting Miwan and Martina, with bare punches and kicks; her moves were totally accurate, as was typical of a well-trained person with high experience in martial arts. In spite of her small size next to those creepy men, Amelia could punch them in their chins and throw them to the ground, and later, jump around over her foot and punching another bandit's belly. Miwan was surprised when she realized that Amelia's punches were so strong that the bandits ended up with broken jaws and ribs, and losing their teeth (even the ones that remained sane); all this at the same time she gave some speeches about how evil those bandits were, among other Justice-related speeches.

How could a woman be *_that_* strong? Miwan was amazed.

But Zelgadiss was the one that scared her the most. The chimera man just moved with the same grace that he had showed when he fought Evia and rescued her. Nor his cloak or his hood were a problem when he fought the bandits; even more, he used his bastard sword, but also his fist and limbs, blocking their weapons with his bare hands and breaking them as he sliced his sword over their bellies or arms, baring their intestines.

Of course, it caused the bandits to try to defeat the two men, trying to concentrate their attacks on them. The group that faced Gourry just couldn't keep their eyes on the Elmekian's fast moves, who disarmed them even before they could raise their weapons. But the group that faced Zelgadiss just found none of their attacks caused him any harm, and he didn't hesitate in making a butchery of their bodies.

"He is not human!" one of the bandits shouted in the middle of the fight.

Miwan heard him, but also saw that Amelia had begun to faint; the pain in her lower body and her low strength due to her current condition caused the Seyruun Princess to be unable to keep the rhythm of such strong and synchronized physical attacks to protect Miwan and Martina. At a certain point, one of her feet landed poorly and she collapsed onto her knees.

"Amelia!" Miwan exclaimed.

But Zelgadiss was faster, and he positioned himself between the girls and the bandits; one of them tried to pounce on Amelia, obviously believing the short haired girl would be easy prey and a better option than facing the guy that stopped their weapons with his hands. In that exact moment, Zelgadiss, almost lazily, waved a stone hand that impacted in the face of the guy with a loud crashing sound, and the guy dropped next to Miwan with his face totally smashed, causing a pool of blood on the paved ground that the storm rain couldn't dissolve. The bandit would probably be dead because his nose, jaw and cheekbones were sunken into his skull, a deadly wound for a human.

Miwan saw the horror in front of her eyes, and then raised her view towards Zelgadiss, who just stopped another sword strike with his lower arm as nothing important, and just after that, he sliced the face of the shocked bandit with the sharp edge of his sword.

"Are you right, Amelia?" he asked, his voice serious.

Amelia ignored the corpse next to them and tried to rise on her foot again.

"Yes, I think. I just am a little weak now…"

"I see" the chimera man replied, "I'll take care of this. You just be still."

"But…"

"Do what I say, Amelia."

Perhaps Zelgadiss wasn't totally aware of this, but Miwan noticed he really took care of Amelia, (and the rest, of course), but she also noticed he didn't care what kind of nasty wounds he caused to the bandits, even less that he could kill a human with only one hand. Miwan realized that she was shaking in disgust at what was happening.

"Ok! Time to finish the fun!" Lina shouted in that moment, "Time for Lina's wonderful magic!... '_Fireball_'!"

Of course, after those words everything ended up in a big explosion.

After the smoke cleared, only some dead bandits' corpses lay on the ground; the rest of them were heavily wounded and others just tried to flee away from there.

"Serves you right to learn the name of Lina Inverse, you scum!" the redhead shouted.

Hearing Lina's name was just enough to make the bandits to run away from there as if a Mazoku were chasing them. Only their dead companions and the ones that were unable to move remained on the road.

* * *

**M**iwan was trembling, and not only because she was soaked with the storm's rain that kept falling over the forest and the paved road that crossed it. She was truly scared because of what she had just witnessed in that fight, and even tried to contain the urge to vomit. Certainly she thought those bandits were nasty people, and even filthier than most of the men she had met after leaving Femille's barriers; besides, they had attacked them without any previous provocation, and their intentions were really dangerous.

But was really necessary to kill them? Or just harming them till the point of not recovering?

She just didn't know, but everybody else seemed to agree that was the norm in these cases. Lina had fried them using her spells, and Zelgadiss…

"Say, Zel!" Lina exclaimed, "You overdid it again, didn't you?" she asked as she took a look at the corpses on the ground.

"Just like you, Lina. You 'fireballed" all of them, too" the chimera answered in a sharp tone, making it clear he wasn't about to let her tease him about something she also did.

"Are you alright, girls?" Gourry asked as he wiped off his blade with a piece of cloth from one of the bandits. Zelgadiss should think it was a good idea and turned towards the guy that he had knock down using his bare hand; when he turned, Miwan gasped as she saw him.

It was like it was the first time Miwan had seen Zelgadiss. Now, the chimera man wasn't anymore the odd elf girl she met back in Femille, nor the strange man that had saved her from a Mazoku, or the nice traveling companion he had been all those days she had been traveling with that eclectic group. He was something different; he was a war machine, a warrior made for fighting humans –and everything else- that didn't hesitate in using his power in hurting others, killing them if it was needed. Now, Zelgadiss was in front of her, his clothes also soaked because of the rain, but also splattered by the bandits' blood; his bastard sword also was covered with nasty stuff whose origin Miwan would rather ignore.

Zelgadiss noticed her scared look, the fear she had in her golden eyes, her mouth dropped, unable to say something clear, except for some babblings. He knew that look too well.

"Miwan…" he started to say trying to sound quiet, "Calm down. Everything is finished already."

"You… you aren't… You cannot…" Miwan started to babble.

"Stay there, Zelgadiss" Martina said, embracing the other princess. "Can't you see you're frightening her?"

And saying this, Miwan was raised on her legs with Martina's help, "Come here, Miwan. Let's go cover ourselves before we catch cold."

Lina crossed her arms behind her neck and watched how the two princesses went to cover themselves over by the trees; fortunately, the storm was past now and only rain kept falling on them, otherwise some random lightning could hurt them.

"Yeah, we better do the same" the redhead said, and began to walk after them.

Amelia, however, looked at Zelgadiss, who seemed to be confused and even astonished.

"Mr. Zelgadiss?" the Seyruun princess asked, "Are you all right?"

The chimera man needed some moments to react before answering Amelia.

"Yes, I'm… It's just… I didn't…."

"It's the first time Miwan saw you fight other people, right?" Even Amelia's voice sounded sad.

Zelgadiss knew that Amelia wanted to mean that he was almost berserk when he fought a foe, because he just was too used to fighting, to face the deeds, to destroy the enemy. It was the usual among chimeras and just common mercenaries like Gourry… but not for Miwan, who had seen in front of her how the "Rezo's berserker" acted in battle. And it had been just too much for somebody that had been raised quietly and peacefully in a country where such things didn't happen. Even for normal people, Zelgadiss' behavior was nasty, and now Miwan seemed to truly fear him.

* * *

**M**iwan had feared Zelgadiss perhaps even more than the rest of them, even the bandits; for the first time since she left the security of her homeland, she had tasted the fear and the horrors that invaded the world outside Femille. Of course, she knew such things existed, but one thing is to know something, and another thing is actually experiencing something. And one of those things was that there are men, very bad men, that attack women in order to have their way with them, and stealing their possessions. What would happen if she were to be traveling alone instead in a group of such capable warriors like these? Miwan didn't dare to think of that. The only thing she knew for sure was Zelgadiss wasn't the caring man she had thought he was all the previous days.

Besides that, it was Zelgadiss himself.

The chimera man knew too well the horror that his deed had caused on the charming princess; he had seen the same horrified face in too many people, too many women, since he started to serve Rezo; and even today, he was still seeing it sometimes in people that come across his path. But now, it was different: the person –the woman, really- that never had judged him in all the time they had spent together, the same woman he had dared to think he could share his life with… had judge, had categorized him, with only a view. Deep inside, Zelgadiss knew it could happen; he was well-aware of Miwan's lack of rough experiences, and he even had tried to hide the darker parts of his character and his life to her, because he knew when Miwan would find the truth, she would be scared to death. Or perhaps just change her opinion about him. He had tried to hide it, but yeah, eventually a deed happened and Zelgadiss would show her how terrible he could be in battle, among other things.

"…I'm such an idiot…" he mused, covering his eyes with a hand.

Gourry came across to the fallen trunk where Zelgadiss was sitting, away from the girls, who were still trying to calm Miwan down.

"Yo, Zelgadiss!" The blond mercenary exclaimed.

"Gourry…" Zelgadiss answered, raising his view towards him.

"Can I sit here?" Gourry asked sounding casual.

"Do it if you want."

"Okay." And the blond swordsman took a seat at the opposite edge of the fallen trunk. He looked at the sky, which was starting to clear up after the storm; the smell of the wet grass and the pines filled the air, and the forest birds sang again.

"It's very quiet now." Gourry commented, protecting his eyes from the sunlight as he raised his view to the blue sky.

"It's the usual after a storm" Zelgadiss shrugged.

"Well…"

"Yeah, well" Zelgadiss answered, "If you are going to tell me something, do it already. I don't like unnecessary light chats."

Gourry smiled, Zelgadiss was like that. But it also meant the chimera man was disposed to listen to him.

"You knew this could happen, didn't you, Zel?" the swordsman commented in a soft voice.

"Yeah, I knew. Miwan wasn't ready for this."

Gourry took a brief look at the girls, who were surrounding Miwan and Martina, in some little grassland behind the road where they had been fighting the bandits, just far away enough to not see the corpses and the battle's traces.

"It was too much for Miwan's first experience in battles." Gourry answered, "We have all suffered it."

"Yeah…" Zelgadiss' answer was vague. It was one of the things he rather avoided to think about, even if he had fought with swords before becoming a chimera. "Miwan wasn't ready for many things, and this is one of them. What it means to see your life in danger because other people… just because those people think you're worthy prey."

"But wasn't she attacked by a werelizard the first time we met her?" Gourry asked.

Zelgadiss looked at the mercenary a little surprised; he didn't expect the Elmekian swordsman to remember that. Sometimes, it seemed Gourry didn't remember things because he didn't want to keep memories, and not because he was an idiot. The chimera man didn't think on that any further and just nodded.

"…But it was a werelizard, not humans. People react different when they're attacked by humans than when they're attacked by other creatures."

Gourry had to agree in that point, but it wasn't what had bought him to Zelgadiss.

"She's having a panic attack. Martina, Lina and Amelia are trying to calm her down since Miwan listens more to the girls than us, the men."

"I guess she doesn't want to see me at all." Zelgadiss added with a quiet voice, remembering how much Miwan admired Amelia's brave attitude. Certainly the Femille princess wasn't ready for the experience they just come across.

"To any men in general. But you have scared her a lot in the battle, seeing you covered in blood and that stuff."

Gourry didn't go into more details; even he, being a mercenary, was usually disappointed with Zelgadiss' fighting tactics, mostly because the chimera man didn't hesitate in using dirty techniques if it helped him to win a battle.

"Did she know that?" the Elmekian asked.

"I didn't tell her anything at all" Zelgadiss answered, "I didn't want her to judge me because of my deeds in the past or my lifestyle. I wanted her to… love me because of the man I could have been."

"Zelgadiss… if you wanted her to love you, she had to know who you are exactly. Your good things and the bad. Otherwise she never would know the person you are."

In other circumstances, Zelgadiss would have kicked Gourry out, just like he had done some days ago, but now he knew how idiotic he had been, thinking he could change reality.

"I've acted like an idiot…" Zelgadiss said in a low voice, "I thought she could be the perfect woman for me. Somebody who could love me without questioning me."

"Zel… everybody questions the deeds of others."

"You know what I meant to say."

"Well…" Gourry started, scratching his head as he looked at the girls, "If it helps you, I just left them with Miwan when she started to explain how men are executed in Femille."

Zelgadiss turned towards Gourry,

"What?" he exclaimed and the blonde nodded.

"She was explaining us that men are executed by cutting out the throats or just the head with an axe. Apparently, she thinks it's the right way to kill somebody."

Zelgadiss understood why Femille's queen had used that gesture when they met her and she granted them passage for rescuing her daughter. Even so, the fact was Miwan had suffered a shock because of the events in the battle.

"And she's okay with that?" the chimera man asked, surprised. "She's okay with cutting men's heads off and she is upset because of the death of some bandits?"

Gourry shrugged, "It's the tradition of her country and she's the princess."

Zelgadiss laughed with sadness.

"I'm doubly an idiot."

Even if Gourry didn't say a word about the matter, Zelgadiss had to admit how wrong he had been about his deep interest in Miwan. He had thought Miwan could be the only real woman that could love him, accepting him and basically sharing her life with him. But he knew Miwan accepted him just because she wasn't ready to know how things were outside her country, how Zelgadiss' really was, and how much she had to learn about everything. Probably Miwan was right about her wishes of learning about life outside the barriers of her kingdom, how different her life could be if her life wasn't to be a shrine maiden… But it didn't mean she actually was ready to learn the reality of those. And certainly Zelgadiss couldn't change that.

The chimera man's deep interest in Miwan had started to dissipate as the storm clouds in the sky from just some minutes ago. He was starting to understand his feelings towards Miwan never were real because Miwan just never could accept him as he was because she didn't even know half of the things the rest of the gang knew about him (which ironically, included Martina). And Zelgadiss, even if he found Miwan's curved shape and cute look fit his taste about women, and her attitude was totally charming… she was boring to him and feared him. So basically he had nothing to do with her. Plus the fact in Miwan's kingdom, having a couple was an alien custom. The result was basically Zelgadiss never could keep a relationship with her; she just couldn't accept him as he was, and said in bare terms Zelgadiss would become tired of her after a while.

In fact, now, when he thought on her, the chimera man wondered what had made him be so interested in her.

"I've acted like a stupid greenhorn…" he said in a low voice, and then, he started to laugh at himself.

Gourry didn't say a word.

* * *

"**S**o now you want to go back to Femille?" Lina asked, quite surprised to hear the truth.

Miwan nodded, her face still pale even if she had recovered quite a lot.

"Yes. After what I've seen today… I'm not ready to travel with you any further. This is too… too mean for me."

Martina looked at Miwan with certain sympathy; she had to agree with her because the Xoana princess understood what it meant to be an unprotected princess that had to survive dealing with the deeds till she met Xelloss and things had improved for her. But even Martina thought she had more courage than Miwan.

"My… my mother let me go out because she thought it would be good for me" Miwan started to explain, "She hoped I could gain enough experience to be the future queen of Femille… But now, it's just too much for me. I think I'm not ready to travel running from such dangers, so the best thing I can do is get back to Femille."

Lina kept her thoughts to herself, but she had the feeling Femille's queen probably knew what could happen to her beloved Miwan if she left the security of her kingdom's barriers, but since Miwan took the fancy of traveling outside her country and refusing to be a shrine maiden, her mother just let her go because she knew Miwan wasn't ready for that, and eventually she could come back with her tail between her legs after having a bad experience. That explained why Miwan could leave Femille so easily.

Femille's queen was really sly.

"What about Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia asked plainly.

Even if Amelia didn't add more information, Miwan knew exactly what Amelia meant to say.

"I… I cannot see him anymore as the charming man I thought he was." Again, Lina had to stifle her laughs, "He has done many good things for me, so I am grateful to him. But I'm not sure I can stand a man that wants me in a way I cannot follow, and since he can be so… so cruel with others. I think I cannot praise him anymore."

The meaning of Miwan' speech was obvious. She was afraid of the outside world and she couldn't deal with a man that had wanted her in some way than she just didn't understand. And besides, she found everybody was so cruel and mean. As a result, Miwan just gave everything up and was going back to Femille.

Amelia was confused, even sad, because of Miwan's decision. Zelgadiss hadn't said a word after the night she confessed to him, neither had he made a move over her or over Miwan; but knew, if Miwan just went back, the things between them would go back to the original status, before the Femille princess appeared and Zelgadiss become interested in her. But even so, her company had been very nice and a great chance to get their respective countries closer … besides Xoana, of course.

"Even so, I think you have to give him your respects" Amelia answered.

Miwan nodded, "Yes. But not now. I am still confused."

"Okay, okay!" Lina interrupted them, "All this is fine and I'm not going to stop you if you want to go back to Femille… But how are you going to do that?"

After hearing this, everybody blinked and looked at Lina in wonder.

"Oh, c'mon! It's obvious she cannot get back to her home without an escort!" Lina answered waving a hand. "And we cannot stop our trip and go back to Femille!"

Actually Lina was right. Gaarv could attack them at any moment; they were the target of powerful Mazoku and couldn't stop their quest just because they had to escort Miwan back home.

"Mss Lina…" Amelia began, "We're very near Rikkido already, and according to Mr. Xelloss, we have a lot of research on that city. Perhaps you could go to Rikkido as we go back to Femille, and later, we all meet together in the city."

Martina didn't say a word, but actually she agreed with Amelia. The Xoana princess was thinking of taking a job at Rikkido and gaining some money, thanks to the fact they would stay there for a while because it will allow her to gain money. At least till Amelia came back…

"Eeerh, Amelia, dear…" Lina began, "Currently you cannot use your magic and we should wait till you go back to Femille and later, going back to Rikkido. Even if two people travel faster than a whole group, we needed more than two weeks to arrive here. We just cannot stay almost a month in Rikkido, waiting for you."

"Oh! That's true."

"If it's a problem, we could go back to the city where we stayed days ago and there, hire a courier that rides horse or something for informing my mother about my decision. Therefore, Princess Amelia wouldn't make all the travel alone with me; neither would you wait for her in Rikkido town."

"Well… That sounds far better" Lina answered.

* * *

**T**he sun was setting behind the mountains and the air was fresh, perhaps a little more since the previous storm had made the atmosphere a little wetter and colder. Still, seeing how the yellow light filtered between the pines' crowns caused a beautiful scenario; the birds also helped because the songs of the larks, spotted cuckoos, woodcocks and other forest birds that gathered in the trees to spend the night also was nice to hear. Nature sounds were always like that, giving a feeling of freedom and relaxation those noisy and overpopulated cities couldn't give.

Lina liked those; since she was a child, the redhead always loved nature. But Amelia also liked to enjoy them because they made her to remember the big royal gardens, back in Seyruun's palace. And now she was sitting on a wood bench outside the hunters' cabin where they wanted to spend the night. The news about accompanying Miwan back to the merchants' cities had changed the group again, and they had been discussing the future plans about it. Of course, Xelloss also had come back to them, agreeing with those, but giving vague answers about his reasons for abandoning them when the bandits attacked. The mocking priest always was like that and it seemed the group couldn't change it.

Anyway, Amelia still was wondering about what was going to happen between Zelgadiss and her after Miwan's departure. Obviously the chimera man couldn't get her after what had happened, but it didn't solve the issues between them.

"Amelia?" she heard a male soft voice calling her.

"Hello, Mr. Zelgadiss" Amelia answered after realizing it was him.

"What are you doing out here? I thought you were collecting firewood."

Amelia denied it with a head gesture, "No. It was Gourry. I was just watching the sunset. It looks very pretty from here."

"Can I sit here?"

"Sure, Mr. Zelgadiss." And the chimera took seat next to her.

They both stayed in silence for a while. It was the first time they were so close after Amelia's confession, and certainly things weren't like they had been just some days ago. The Seyruun princess felt pretty awkward next to him, and she was sure the feeling was mutual.

"Mr. Zelgadiss… I…"

"Amelia, I don't think you shouldn't go back to that city alone with Miwan" the chimera said, which obviously it was one of the possible reasons that had bought him there.

"What?"

"You're without powers, still. And even if Miwan doesn't feel really happy with me, she truly feels in debt to me. I think I should accompany you both to the city and help you hire somebody that could guard her."

Amelia turned towards Zelgadiss and looked at him, her eyes wide open. Sometimes, the chimera man knew how to be really nice with others; Amelia knew deep inside, Zelgadiss was a good man.

"Are you sure you want that? You were truly interested in her and she just seems unable to see… well, to accept the truth from the world outside her kingdom" Amelia answered, "Well, I guess you want to say 'goodbye' to her."

Zelgadiss' stone hand caught a rock from the ground and threw it towards some near bushes. Due to that impact, the chirping birds fell into silence.

"Yes, I was." The chimera man answered in a serious tone, "But not now. It just cannot be and I've realized it's impossible."

"No? Really?"

"I made a wrong choice." His voice was sharp; as he was trying to make clear it didn't mean he actually answered her feelings. As he was reading Amelia's thoughts, he turned towards her. "And perhaps you did also."

"Mr. Zelgadiss… My feelings are real." Amelia rushed to answer, and just afterwards, she blushed madly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so effusive."

"Never mind, Amelia. I don't know what to think right now. I don't think I can believe in anything else… at least for a while."

Amelia realized he was trying to be at peace with her, but also making clear he just didn't know what to do, what to feel, and even talking anymore about it.

"…But I know something" he added, suddenly. "I know you're my friend, in the same way than Lina and Sylphiel are, perhaps even closer than them. And it hardly can be changed."

Amelia remained in silence for some seconds till she finally answered.

"Thanks, Mr. Zelgadiss."

The chimera man closed his eyes and smiled in that particular way of his. He would love to be surer about his own feelings, and he also wished that Amelia would be like that because he still thought Amelia's confession was just the result of his fake relationship with Miwan and not something real. However, it was time to get closer to Amelia once again.

"So… what was that spell you wanted to learn about?" he asked, sounding casual.

"Oh! I'm creating a new combat spell and I'd like you tell me about '_Astral Vine'_." Amelia answered in her usual bubbly manner.

"Okay! I'll let you know about it. You're going to have plenty of time to learn it when we escort Miwan."

The Seyruun princess smiled widely. Even if Zelgadiss wasn't sure about her feelings, or just didn't dare to take them seriously, their friendship was solid. And that, at least for now, was the most important, and someday, in the future, they would learn the truth.

THE END

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Well, this is the end of this story. Thank you so much for reading and I really sorry the delay in the last update of this fic. I tried to write something short and clear about the events I wanted to tell. I wrote this for a contest in the Slayers ZA community, although I portrayed the ideas that my friend Nadessiko and me shared; we wanted to make clear why Miwan/Zel never would work, and well, on this chapter some plot holes are also solved. I like to be a concise author that ties up everything.

I'm happy you enjoyed this as much as I did.


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